City of Hopewell, VirginiaFreedom of Information Act policy
This policy establishes procedures for helping the City of Hopewell
employees comply with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and to
provide information to the citizens of the Commonwealth in a timely
manner.
Rights & Responsibilities - The Virginia Freedom of Information Act
The Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), located § 2.2-3700 et.
seq. of the Code of Virginia, guarantees citizens of the Commonwealth
and representatives of the media access to public records held by
public bodies, public officials, and public employees.
A public record is any writing or recording -- regardless of whether it
is a paper record, an electronic file, an audio or video recording, or
any other format -- that is prepared or owned by, or in the possession
of a public body or its officers, employees or agents in the
transaction of public business. All public records are presumed to be
open, and may only be withheld if a specific, statutory exemption
applies.
The policy of FOIA states that the purpose of FOIA is to promote an
increased awareness by all persons of governmental activities. In
furthering this policy, FOIA requires that the law be interpreted
liberally, in favor of access, and that any exemption allowing public
records to be withheld must be interpreted narrowly.
Your FOIA Rights
You have the right to request to inspect or receive copies of public records, or both.
You have the right to request that any charges for the requested records be estimated in advance.
If you believe that your FOIA rights have been violated, you may
file a petition in district or circuit court to compel compliance with
FOIA.
Making a Request for records from the City of Hopewell
You may request records by U.S. Mail, fax, e-mail, in person, or
over the phone. FOIA does not require that your request be in writing,
nor do you need to specifically state that you are requesting records
under FOIA.
From a practical perspective, it may be helpful to both you and
the person receiving your request to put your request in writing. This
allows you to create a record of your request. It also gives us a clear
statement of what records you are requesting, so that there is no
misunderstanding over a verbal request. However, we cannot refuse to
respond to your FOIA request if you elect to not put it in writing.
Your request must identify the records you are seeking with
"reasonable specificity." This is a common-sense standard. It does not
refer to or limit the volume or number of records that you are
requesting; instead, it requires that you be specific enough so that we
can identify and locate the records that you are seeking.
Your request must ask for records or documents. FOIA gives you a
right to inspect or copy records; it does not apply to a situation
where you are asking general questions about the work of City of
Hopewell.
You may choose to receive electronic records in any format used by City of Hopewell in the regular course of business.
For example, if you are requesting records maintained in an
Excel database, you may elect to receive those records electronically,
via e-mail or on a computer disk, or to receive a printed copy of those
records.
If we have questions about your request, please cooperate with
staff's efforts to clarify the type of records that you are seeking, or
to attempt to reach a reasonable agreement about a response to a large
request. Making a FOIA request is not an adversarial process, but we
may need to discuss your request with you to ensure that we understand
what records you are seeking.
The Freedom of Information Advisory Council is available to answer any
questions you may have about FOIA. The Council may be contacted by
e-mail at foiacouncil@leg.state.va.us, or by phone at 804-225-3056 or
[toll free] 1-866-448-4100.
City of Hopewell's Responsibilities in Responding to Your Request
City of Hopewell must respond to your request within five working
days of receiving it. "Day One" is considered the day after your
request is received. The five-day period does not include weekends or
holidays.
The reason behind your request for public records from City of
Hopewell is irrelevant, and we cannot ask you why you want the records
before we respond to your request. FOIA does, however, allow City of
Hopewell to ask you to provide your name and legal address.
FOIA requires that City of Hopewell make one of the following responses to your request within the five-day time period:
We provide you with the records that you have requested in their entirety.
We withhold all of the records that you have requested, because
all of the records are subject to a specific statutory exemption. If
all of the records are being withheld, we must send you a response in
writing. That writing must identify the volume and subject matter of
the records being withheld, and state the specific section of the Code
of Virginia that allows us to withhold the records.
We provide some of the records that you have requested, but
withhold other records. We cannot withhold an entire record if only a
portion of it is subject to an exemption. In that instance, we may
redact the portion of the record that may be withheld, and must provide
you with the remainder of the record. We must provide you with a
written response stating the specific section of the Code of Virginia
that allows portions of the requested records to be withheld.
If it is practically impossible for the City of Hopewell to
respond to your request within the five-day period, we must state this
in writing, explaining the conditions that make the response
impossible. This will allow us seven additional working days to respond
to your request, giving us a total of 12 working days to respond to
your request.
If you make a request for a very large number of records, and we
feel that we cannot provide the records to you within 12 days without
disrupting our other organizational responsibilities, we may petition
the court for additional time to respond to your request. However, FOIA
requires that we make a reasonable effort to reach an agreement with
you concerning the production or the records before we go to court to
ask for more time.
Costs
You may have to pay for the records that you request from the
City of Hopewell. FOIA allows us to charge for the actual costs of
responding to FOIA requests. This would include items like staff time
spent searching for the requested records, copying costs, or any other
costs directly related to supplying the requested records. It cannot
include general overhead costs.
If we estimate that it will cost more than $200 to respond to
your request, we may require you to pay a deposit before proceeding
with your request.
You may request that we estimate in advance the charges for
supplying the records that you have requested. This will allow you to
know about any costs upfront, or give you the opportunity to modify
your request in an attempt to lower the estimated costs.
Commonly used exemptions
The Code of Virginia allows any public body to withhold certain records
from public disclosure. The City of Hopewell commonly withholds records
subject to the following exemptions:
Personnel records (§ 2.2-3705.1 (1) of the Code of Virginia);
Records subject to attorney-client privilege (§ 2.2-3705.1 (2)) or attorney work product (§ 2.2-3705.1 (3));
Vendor proprietary information (§ 2.2-3705.1 (6));
Records relating to the negotiation and award of a contract, prior to a contract being awarded (§ 2.2-3705.1 (12));
Working papers prepared by or for the Office of the Governor and
correspondence of the Office of the Governor (§ 2.2-3705.7 (2)); and
Records of City of Hopewell relating to active federal
environmental enforcement actions and agency enforcement strategies (§
2.2-3705.7 (16))
