An Open Letter to Dr. Starr on Public Information in Maryland

Dear Dr. Starr:

Welcome to Maryland.  It's been a little over two weeks since you have taken over the helm at Montgomery County Public Schools,  and I hope you are adjusting well to the Washington heat and humidity.   The good folks at Carver are probably showing you around town, and with that really super transition team, you should be up to speed in no time.

I don't know how things worked in Connecticut, or other places where you've been, but I have a feeling that you just may need some better advice on what the taxpayers expect.  Given that your staff and legal counsel have given advice on the Open Meetings Law that is just plain wrong, as evidenced by two separate opinions from the Open Meetings Compliance Board, I would hate for you to find yourself in similar difficulties with other Maryland law.  So, here is my introduction to the Maryland Public Information Act.

As you know, information in the files of the government belongs to the citizens.  This is basic, and goes back to the common law.  In Maryland, we have codifed this rule into a statute called the "Maryland Public Information Act."   You can find this law at Title 10, Subtitle 6, Part III of the State Government Article (“SG”);  our friendly attorney general, Mr. Gansler, has issued a manual with everything you need to know.

In Maryland, we have a right to access government records without unnecessary cost or delay.  You have the lucky honor as the custodian of the records to provide access to the records unless the records are within one of the exemptions listed in the statute.  Things like personnel records, student records,  and certain other records that the state has determined should not be released.  However, the presumption is on disclosure, and you need to be careful when you withhold records that the records really are exempt.  Also - if some parts of a record or document can be withheld from release, that doesn't give you permission to withhold the entire document.  You are required to release the portion of the document that is disclosable, and limit the amount of material withheld from public view.  Take a look at Mr. Gansler's manual for a much more detailed description of what should and should not be disclosed. And then there is the matter of time.  The MPIA requires that records responsive to requests should be produced immediately after receipt of a written request.  See SG §10-614(b)(2).  Yes, the manual does acknowledge that you can have a period not to exceed 30 days, but only if you need that time to locate the documents.  The Manual states:

A custodian should not wait the full 30 days to allow or deny access to a record if that amount of time is not needed to respond. If access is to be granted, the record should be produced for inspection and copying promptly after the written request is evaluated.

See the Manual, at page 53.  Recall, our prior Superintendent was given an award for being "Tech Savy" and spent a lot of money on technology, so our school system does have the ability to retrieve loads of information very quickly, contrary to what your public information office may tell you.

You can charge certain fees for copying and locating the documents, but again, the Manual cautions that these fees should not be charged to deter the public from requesting documents or copies.  And, folks are entitled to request a waiver of the fees.  You are encouraged to grant the waiver, if the waiver is in the public interest.  According to the Manual:

To determine whether a waiver is in the public interest, the official custodian must consider not only the ability of the applicant to pay, but also other relevant factors. A waiver may be appropriate, for example, when a requester seeks information for a public purpose rather than a narrow personal or commercial interest.

See page 13.

I look forward to working with you during your stay in Maryland.  And remember, we've got a lot of information available at no cost on our state website, so if you do a little bit of reading on your own, you can probably reduce the cost of those high priced legal services that our Board of Education seems to enjoy.