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Mount Vernon Board of Ethics debates whether FOIA should disclose who filed complaints
Summary
At a brief meeting the Mount Vernon Board of Ethics discussed two public-records requests asking whether the board or city investigated particular individuals, and officials said the cityFOIA officer and legal department determine what is releasable.
The Mount Vernon Board of Ethics spent part of its meeting on whether Freedom of Information Act requests seeking the identities of people who filed complaints should be released. The board, which convened at 6:35 p.m., discussed two recent FOIA requests asking whether specific individuals had been the subject of investigations and who had filed complaints.
Chair Curtis Braxton said, "It's come to my attention that we've got some correspondence through FOIA that people on the outside, they're requesting... who made complaints of investigations and things like that," and described the requests as having arrived through the city's FOIA process. Braxton added that he believed confidentiality protections could apply in some cases.
Board member Lehi Alford and another member pushed back on treating the requester identities as automatically confidential. One member asked, "Why would that be considered confidential?" and said they regularly use FOIA and expected transparency.
Braxton responded that the board is not the final decision-maker for FOIA releases. "Our obligation is that since we are a public entity and doing a routine business, there's things that are releasable and there are things that are not. And it'll do a FOIA person to determine what's releasable or not. It's not under our pen," he said, adding that the legal department and the FOIA officer determine what the city can release.
Members said there appear to be at least two separate FOIA requests on this subject. At one point Braxton noted a FOIA officer named Gina had provided guidance on one request and that he had cc'd the legal department on a response. A board member also said they had attempted to brief a member named Blair who could not access the materials.
The session record shows the discussion remained at the level of process and disclosure rules; the board did not vote on any change to disclosure policy during the public portion of the meeting. The board moved later to an executive session for matters the members said required private discussion.
The exchange left two clear procedural points on the record: the board treats FOIA determinations as handled by the city's FOIA officer and legal department, and multiple FOIA requests asking about complaint origins were pending during the meeting.
