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Council upholds fee for FOIA request seeking city manager/assistant manager texts
Summary
City Council unanimously affirmed the clerk’s decision to require a deposit to cover costs of locating and reviewing text messages between the city manager and assistant city manager. The council found the fee reasonable and denied the fee‑waiver request.
Farmington Hills City Council unanimously upheld the clerk’s fee and deposit request for a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) appeal seeking text messages between the city manager and assistant city manager for Jan. 1–March 31, 2025.
City attorney representative Carlito Young and the clerk’s office advised the council that the request involved the two highest administrative officials and that a thorough review would be necessary to identify privileged or private information before release. Young said the work required is not suitable to lower‑level staff and that the estimated fee covered reasonable tasks to retrieve and redact exempt material. “The cost was reasonable,” Young told council members.
Councilmember Bruce moved to uphold the city’s deposit request and to deny a fee‑waiver request, citing statutory provisions that permit cost recovery for processing FOIA requests. The motion described the statutory basis, noting that FOIA authorizes municipalities to charge for the labor and review necessary to produce records and that the requester had not provided the documentation needed to qualify for a reduced fee.
Council voted unanimously to affirm the clerk’s action. The clerk had estimated the cost to prepare responsive records and requested a 50 percent good‑faith deposit before processing; the council determined that the fee assessment followed the city’s publicly posted FOIA procedures and the statute.
