Legal Affairs honors FOIA request 7 days late

Patrick Armstrong | Editor in Chief

On Monday, March 22, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request letter was sent from The All State to Chief of Campus Police Lantz Biles in regards to the attempted abduction on campus that occurred on Tuesday, March 16. As of Thursday, April 8, it has been 14 business days and the report or a deny of the request in writing has not been sent to The All State from Richard Jackson, vice president of Legal Affairs and Strategic Planning and custodian of public records.

According to Tennessee Code Annotated 10-7-503 (2)(B)(i-iii), “The custodian of a public record or the custodian’s designee shall promptly make available for inspection any public record not specifically exempt from disclosure. In the event it is not practicable for the record to be promptly available for inspection, the custodian shall, within seven (7) business days: make the information available to the requestor; deny the request in writing or by completing a records request response form developed by the office of open records counsel. The response shall include the basis for the denial or furnish the requestor a completed records request response form developed by the office of open records counsel stating the time reasonably necessary to produce the record or information.”

According to Veronica Jackson, senior administrative assistant in Legal Affairs, Jackson is currently at the Tennessee Board of Regents Third Biennial Diversity Conference in Nashville, Tenn. The conference runs until Friday, April 9, and that the request will be processed Monday, April 12, which will be 16 business days from the date of the request. Jackson is the only person at APSU who can approve public record requests, according to Bill Persinger, executive director of Public Relations and Marketing. The code, however, does mention that a “custodian’s designee” can make public records request available. APSU does not currently have such a designee.

Persinger has contacted Jackson at the conference and said that by Friday, April 9, the report will be made available.

ADDITION (Thursday, April 8): Jackson has e-mailed the report to The All State at 5:05 p.m., four minutes after this story was published.

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