Concerns over election integrity, political turmoil, and distrust in government seem to be driving the trend to submit Freedom of Information Act requests to government agencies. In Macomb County, FOIA requests received by the county have nearly tripled from five years ago.
At the state level, the governor’s office and the Legislature are currently exempt from FOIA requests but pending legislation could change that.
In a bipartisan effort to encourage government transparency, State Sens. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) and Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan) introduced legislation that would expand Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Michigan Legislature, the governor, and the lieutenant governor.
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Senate Bills 669 and 670 passed in a vote of 36-2 in late June. They were referred to the House Government Operations Committee, where bills usually go to die or move into law. The two lawmakers remain hopeful they could pass
The lawmakers have worked on FOIA reform for a decade and believe it will bring greater transparency to state government.
“Transparency in our government is a necessary and important step in growing and restoring trust and confidence in our government and the people elected to it,” said McBroom, R-Waucedah Township, in a press release.
Macomb County Corporation Counsel John Scapka recently brought up FOIA requests at his annual budget hearing in front of the Board of Commissioners, noting the number has risen from 434 in 2019 to 1,071 in 2023 and a projected 1,261 this year, as reported by the Macomb Daily.
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Under the Macomb County ordinance, Corporation Counsel is the FOIA officer, and by policy each department has a FOIA coordinator. The county charges for the duplication of records – about $38 per hour for a clerk’s work and $68 per hour for attorneys – but it does impact a department’s workload.
“Political turmoil and a general distrust in government has created a tsunami of public records requests of ever-escalating proportions, an alarming number of which require production of multiple boxes of records requiring careful, page-by-page review,” Scapka wrote to the board for the budget meeting.
The Department of State has seen a nearly 800% increase in total FOIA requests since 2021. Many of those requests are related to the 2020 election, according to Chris Dewitt, the owner of FOIA Services Michigan, a company that issues weekly lists of FOIA requests submitted to Michigan state departments.
The Senate bills include exemptions for other state agencies, including the House and Senate Fiscal Agencies and the Legislative Service Bureau. The legislation has the support of the Michigan Press Association, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, ACLU of Michigan, Michigan League of Women Voters, Progress Michigan, and Voters Not Politicians.
“It seems like people are interested in how the state and country operate,” Steve Delie, director of labor policy and transparency and open government for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said in the MIRS article. “Responding to FOIA requests can be annoying, but being transparent is really important for government entities.”
In part, lawmakers hope FOIA reform will encourage more openness in state government. Michigan hasn’t fared well in past reports on public access to records and transparency, previously ranking dead last in the nation for government integrity.
In 2015, the Center for Public Integrity graded Michigan as an “F” in its state integrity investigation. The state received failing scores in multiple categories, including public access to information, executive accountability, and legislative accountability.