NICAR has been updating its list of the best (or worst, depending on your perspective) excuses that government agencies have given for refusing to fill data requests. Here are the war stories that reporters around the country have shared with us:
Ande Engleman, former executive director of the Nevada Press Association: "My favorite came from a county clerk in reference to a law requiring public access to 'all claims paid by the county' (meaning all checks written to whom and what for): 'That's not an important law to follow,' the clerk said. "My query of, 'Who says which laws are important and which ones are not?' was answered by a copy of a directive from the Nevada Department of Taxation, which said they would not be audited for following that law. We uncovered a real mess, which we took to the governor. The directive got changed very quickly, and all of a sudden this information became available in all counties."
Bryant Jordan, Air Force Times: "My editor recently asked the Air Force for some statistics relating to promotions. The official he asked responded by saying something to the effect that, 'Oh, those are irrelevant. You don't need those.' "My editor's response went something like, 'With all due respect, I decide what's relevant.'"
Drew Sullivan, The Associated Press: "Here's one I got at NICAR: 'We can't give you the record layout because then you can hack into our system and change the data.'"
Michelle Moon, WAVE-TV: "How about this excuse I got: 'Well, let me talk to your data guy.' My response: 'I am my data guy.'"
Bill Kelly, Nebraska ETV Network: "I don't think that's even in the computer." "On records of purchases of tax delinquencies from a county treasurer: 'We only sell those to private businesses.' A protest to county board members eventually 'clarified' this policy, and the records were released, free of charge." "In the midst of assisting in the instruction of an advanced reporting class with CAR skills training at the University of Nebraska, nearly everyone in the class was met with the following from a variety of agencies: 'We couldn't do that for a student.'"
Paul D'Ambrosio, Asbury Park Press: "New Jersey has no FOIA law, so we take routine denials in stride (can you say, masocists?) However, a few do rise to the 'you got to be kidding' level:"
ME, to a N.J. state department: I would like to have your line item budget for the last five years, either on disk or on paper. THEM: I'm not sure we have that. ME: How do you run your department if you don't know how much money you have? THEM: Well, we have a budget, but we don't keep it in the format you want. ME: I'll take whatever you have. THEM: It'll take an employee two full weeks to do because we have to compile the information from several computers. ME: I'll wait. (Two weeks later) THEM: It may take longer. This is a busy year for us. We're putting next year's budget together. ME: Muffled screams
Mike Ravnitzky: "It's still a classified national security record, but we can't locate it." "We can't release it because the agency responsible for that document is no longer in existence, and no other agency has taken over its responsibilities." "Now, why would you want a copy of that, huh?" "That was illegal, and we can't release information on illegal activities."
Matthew David Waite, The Daily Nebraskan: "I spent a half an hour listening to a university bureaucrat tell me that they did not have the power to pull salary data information off their mainframe system, yet they publish a book of salary data every year that is printed straight off a database. "My response: 'Give me a half an hour of mainframe time, and I'll show you how to do it.'"
Jo Craven can be reached at (573) 882-0684, or send e-mail to jo@nicar.org