Primer for Filing you own PIA with MSP

I say we bury the bastards in paperwork.

http://www.dpscs.state.md.us/publicinfo/pia.shtml

This page tells you what info is available and the general process.

http://www.oag.state.md.us/Opengov/Appendix_A.pdf

This is a sample letter.

http://www.mdsp.org/Organization/SupportServicesBureau/CentralRecordsDivision.aspx

This is the MSP information. I'm assuming that is where we would send our requests, although I am sure it would also be acceptable to send them to HQ in Pikesville.

http://www.oag.state.md.us/Opengov/pia.htm

Attorney General's guidelines for PIA requests.

Let's hoist them on their own petard. It's your information, find out who had access to it, when, where and in what manner. If they cannot or will not answer within 30 days then we have grounds to take them to court for failure to comply.

Anything you mail, I would send it Certified with a Return Receipt so you have a positive signature trail. Notarizing the request might be nice, but probably not needed.

Sample PIA Request


Mr. H. Wayne Boyle
Director
Housing Authority of Calvert County
P.O. Box 2509

Prince Frederick, MD 20678


Re: Public Information Act Request

Dear Mr. Boyle:

This is a request under the Public Information Act, Md. Code Ann., State Gov't § 10-611, et seq. (the “PIA”). I write to you in your capacity of custodian of records of the Housing Authority of Calvert County and I make this request on behalf of Maryland Legal Aid. Pursuant to the PIA, I request copies of all documents in your custody and control pertaining to the § 8 Housing Choice Voucher program (“HCV”) administered by your agency, as follows:

• Records showing the number of HCV program recipients (“recipients”) in your program as of December 31st of 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010;

• Records showing the number of people who applied to participate in the HCV program (“applicants”) in each of those same five years;

• Records showing the number of applicants accepted to participate in the HCV program for each of those same five years;

• Records showing the amount of time that elapsed between the recipient receiving a HCV and the recipient using the HCV to move into a home, for each of those same five years;

• Records showing the number of applicants rejected during each of those five years;

• For each applicant rejected between January 1, 2009, and the date of this letter:

• • The letter you wrote to the applicant giving the rejection decision (the “rejection letter”);

• • Records showing the number of rejected applicants who requested an Informal Hearing;

• • Records showing the number of Informal Hearings for rejected applicants held; and,

• • For each such Informal Hearing, the written decision given by the Hearing Officer;

• Records showing the number of HVC recipients to whom your program sent letters terminating their participation in the HVC program (“termination letters”) in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, and, for each of those years:

• • The number of those recipients who requested an Informal Hearing;

• • The number of Informal Hearings held;

• • The number of recipients who had an attorney present at the Informal Hearing;

• • The number of recipients who prevailed at the Informal Hearing, and thus continued as recipients in the HCV program; and

• • The number of recipients who did not prevail at the Informal Hearing and thus were terminated from the HCV program;

• From January 1, 2009, through the present:

• • Each termination letter you sent to a recipient;

• • Each letter you sent to inform a recipient of a scheduled Informal Meeting;

• • The written decision of the Hearing Officer after each Informal Hearing;

• • Each letter you wrote to the recipient’s landlord regarding your intent to terminate the recipient’s participation in the HCV program; and

• • For each of those recipients in your termination process, any other letter not included above which you sent to the recipient or the recipient’s landlord on or after the date of the original termination letter;

• Your Administrative Plan for the HCV program, including the date on which it was last approved by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”);

• The schedule for the required reviews of your Administrative Plan including the dates of any required public comment periods; and

• Any other documents showing your policies for the HCV program, including rules and/or instructions for landlords and for recipients.

If all or any part of this request is denied, please identify the nature and general content of each item being withheld and provide a written statement of the grounds for the denial, citing the law or regulation under which you are authorized to deny access; furthermore, please include with any such denial a statement of any available remedy for review of the denial.

If any document I have requested includes the name or other identifying information for the recipient or applicant, you may redact only such identifying information; this redaction should include only the name, address, telephone number, or Social Security number of the recipient or applicant.

If you determine that some portions of the requested records are exempt from disclosure, you should provide me with “any reasonably severable portion of the records as required in Md. Code Ann., State Gov't § 10-614(b)(3)(iii).

Please advise me as to the cost, if any, of obtaining a copy of the records requested. You are to respond within thirty days of this request pursuant to Md. Code Ann., State Gov't § 10-614(b). If you have adopted a fee schedule for obtaining copied records and/or other policies or other rule implementing the Public Information Act, please provide me with a copy.

If you have questions regarding this request, please feel free to call me.

Sincerely,



Margaret A. Maupin
Senior Staff Attorney

Here is one I typed up, feel free to use it.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

John Doe
123 Main Street
Annapolis, Maryland 22222
Phone 410 555 5555

Maryland State Police Licensing Division
Colonel Marcus L. Brown
Superintendent
1111 Reisterstown Road
Pikesville, Maryland 21208

To whom it may concern:
This is a request under the Maryland Public Information Act, State Government
Article §§10-611 to 630. I am making this request on my own behalf.
In this capacity, I wish to inspect all records in your custody and control pertaining to the following:
(A) Documentation of the chain of custody for my form 77R required for purchase of a regulated firearm in the State of Maryland.
(B) Records of the names, dates, times and manners my form 77R and the information contained therein was accessed.
(C) Documentation showing the current storage status of my form and the information contained therein.
(D) Documentation illustrating the security measures in place to safeguard the storage of my form 77R and the information contained therein, including but not limited to physical security measures as well as electronic security measures, including the specific means that the electronic data is safeguarded.
If all or any part of this request is denied, I request that I be provided with a written statement of the grounds for the denial. If you determine that some portions of the requested records are exempt from disclosure, please provide me with the portions that can be disclosed.
Please advise me as to the cost, if any, for inspecting the records described above. I anticipate that I will want copies of some or all of the records sought. If you have adopted a fee schedule for obtaining copies of records and other rules or regulations implementing the Act, please send me a copy.
I look forward to receiving disclosable records promptly and, in any event, to a decision about all of the requested records within 30 days. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any questions regarding this request, please telephone me at the above number.

Sincerely,

On it tomorrow when I have access to a printer! -Then off to the Post Office!

http://watchdogwire.com/maryland/20...te-spirit-of-maryland-public-information-act/

And lest you think we're the only ones who noticed the MD PIA law sucks ass...

Beautiful! Thanks, I will be sending mine as well.

You are welcome, my wife and I just printed ours!

Thanks dfens. Plan to clone and send certified mail ASAP.

We'll probably all get a form letter in effect saying not to worry, it's all covered. Be interesting to get some statistics on how many MSP folks have a purchase in the mill and if they were subjected to the same data sharing us lowly citizens were.

I can't even get E-ZPass to respond to a message I sent them over a month ago about my account status. They told me they'd get back to me "within 5 business days." I wonder how long this will take.

They have 30 days, otherwise you have some specific legal remedies.

Thank you! Send it certified!

dfens42 said:

They have 30 days, otherwise you have some specific legal remedies.

Click to expand...

Yes, but are you going to take them to court? If the point is to bury them in paperwork, I don't see what that's going to do since many of the state's agencies are already backlogged and completely inept.

Feel free to share it.


MSI, whoever, the more they get, the better.

Under MD's PIA law, one must request documents or records.

The law does not provide for request of the status of your records or other information or statements that are not a document or record.

OK, I will make some edits.

CypherPunk said:

Under MD's PIA law, one must request documents or records.

The law does not provide for request of the status of your records or other information or statements that are not a document or record.

Click to expand...

Part of this is about "papering them to death" and increasing their workload. It's hard to apply Moore's law and the Mythical Man Month to an ever increasing workload, no matter the increase in computing power or manpower.

Come Oct 1, the first person that is NOT approved a HQL on 10/30/2013, is the best case for a denial of rights.

fightinbluhen51 said:

Part of this is about "papering them to death" and increasing their workload. It's hard to apply Moore's law and the Mythical Man Month to an ever increasing workload, no matter the increase in computing power or manpower.

Come Oct 1, the first person that is NOT approved a HQL on 10/30/2013, is the best case for a denial of rights.

Click to expand...

Also true, but part of me does want to see what sort of ******** they come up with to answer my questions.

(A) Documentation of the chain of custody for my form 77R required for purchase of a regulated firearm in the State of Maryland.
(B) Records of the names, dates, times and manners my form 77R and the information contained therein was accessed.
(C) Documentation showing the current storage status of my form and the information contained therein.
(D) Documentation illustrating the security measures in place to safeguard the storage of my form 77R and the information contained therein, including but not limited to physical security measures as well as electronic security measures, including the specific means that the electronic data is safeguarded.


There you go, just copy pasta out that middle section. Now we're requesting documents and records

I'm doing this. "Eat paperwork, tyrants" just doesn't have a good ring to it though.

How about...

"Go blind processing PIA requests you incompetent ****s"?