Battle Creek moves FOIA coordination to city manager (delegation to city attorney); residents warn of higher fees

The Battle Creek City Commission on Dec. 17 approved a policy update that designates the city manager as the municipalitys FOIA coordinator beginning Jan. 1, 2025, with authority to delegate processing and legal review to the city attorney's office.

Residents who spoke during the public-comment period urged the commission to reconsider, saying the change would raise the cost of public-record requests and make it harder for ordinary residents to obtain documents. "It's going to raise the FOIA fees," said Joe Harris, who outlined Michigan FOIA fee rules and warned that using higher-paid attorney rates could "discourage public participation in the democratic process." Autumn Smith said the city has in the past "abuse[d] and misuse[d] FOIA" and accused staff of improperly invoking attorney-client privilege to withhold records.

City leaders defended the change as a legal and operational improvement. Assistant City Manager (as introduced in the meeting) told commissioners the clerk's office had done a good job but that FOIA often raises legal questions about redactions and exemptions that are best served by placement in the attorney's office. "We aren't necessarily recommending that we change coordination... because we've identified a problem," the assistant city manager said, adding the change would put "the legal responsibility where it likely belongs." City Attorney Bill said staff do not expect "major increases in the fees" because routine work would be handled by support staff at pay rates comparable to current clerk-office support; attorney review would be used only for complex or rare cases.

Bill also described planned technology and process changes intended to speed responses: the city is moving toward an online FOIA-management system (NextRequest by CivicPlus) that the city attorney's office estimates will cost roughly $6,000 in year one with a roughly $12,000 annual cost thereafter (the vendor offered a 50% first-year discount). He said the software should let the city better track requests, route them to departments that hold records, and reduce manual paper-tracking.

Commissioners asked whether delegating FOIA to the manager/attorney would create an extra step for routine requests and whether fees could rise if attorney time were charged. Bill said most FOIA processing would remain at support-staff levels and that attorney time would be charged only when an attorney review is required; when attorney time is charged, it would be billed at the lowest-paid attorney rate rather than the city attorney's higher rate. The clerk, Vicky Houser, earlier in the meeting had highlighted the scope of the 2024 election-related work; she and others were thanked for thousands of combined hours serving 21 precincts and processing 38,128 ballots in multiple elections.

After discussion and public comment, the commission voted to approve Resolution 44, which updates the City's FOIA policy to designate the city manager as coordinator and allows delegation to the city attorney's office beginning Jan. 1, 2025. The resolution passed without a recorded roll-call tally in the meeting transcript beyond the chair's announcement, "Resolution 44 has been approved."

What happens next: city staff said they will implement online kiosks and an FOIA portal and formalize procedures for routing requests to departments and for limited attorney review. Residents who raised concerns asked commissioners to monitor any fee changes and to ensure the software and procedures maintain easy access for residents.