Two Republican lawmakers in Maine are hoping to expand their authority to investigate the exorbitant fees and lengthy timelines that the state’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has attached to Mainers’ requests to access public records.
Under the Freedom of Access Act, or FOAA, Mainers have the right to access a wide array of public records, subject to certain restrictions that protect “legitimate governmental interests” and individual citizens’ privacy.
Although Maine’s FOAA law does not specify exactly how quickly agencies must turn over the requested records, but they must do so “within a reasonable period of time.”
Agencies are also permitted to charge up to $25 per hour to cover the cost associated with gathering and compiling the requested records. The first two hours worth of work, however, must be provided free-of-charge.
This past winter, the Government Oversight Committee (GOC) was made aware that DHHS had attempted to charge a seemingly outrageous fee to members of the press looking to access certain records and provided a lengthy time estimate.
After being contacted about a Maine citizen experiencing similar difficulties accessing public records from DHHS, two Republican lawmakers are hoping to expand the scope of the ongoing investigation into the Department’s FOAA practices to include requests made by individuals as well as members of the press.
[RELATED: Maine DHHS Tried to Charge Media Outlet Over $250K to Fulfill a FOAA Request]
In February of this year, lawmakers on the GOC launched an investigation in response to concerns raised by local news outlet WMTW after being quoted $250,000 for records pertaining to late payments made to Maine’s child care providers and told that it would take four years to fulfill.
Last month, members of the GOC were made aware of another instance of the Maine DHHS attempting to charge a large fee for access to public records.
Berwick resident Ryan Michaels contacted GOC lawmakers after being told by DHHS that it would more than $50,000 and take up to a year to receive a copy of their records pertaining to him and his household.
This prompted GOC members Sen. Jeff Timberlake (R-Androscoggin) and Sen. Brad Garrin (R-Somerset) to ask the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability (OPEGA) to expand their investigatory authority.
In their letter, the senators explain that the cost quoted by DHHS for Michaels’ request is roughly equivalent to Maine’s median salary.
“Fees of this magnitude usurp the legislative intent of the Freedom of Access Act and are a nearly unattainable hurdle for citizens trying to access public information,” they wrote.
They go on to suggest that “the final quote does not reflect the actual work being done,” arguing that by the Department’s own estimations it should take only half the time for which they intended to charge him.
The senators went on to ask: “If the fee is not justified by the reason the Department provided to Mr. Micheals, then what justifies it?”
Timberlake and Farrin further question why DHHS estimates that it would take them four minutes per record to conduct a keyword search “despite our ‘state-of-the-art’ Katahdin software.”
Adopted in January of 2022, Katahdin replaced the Maine Automated Child Welfare Information system (MACWIS) and is used by DHHS to upload and access case data, as well as to assess the risk a child in the system is facing and make decisions about whether or not a child should stay in, or be returned to, their biological home.
“We were told the system would increase efficiency,” the senators wrote, “but clearly that claim has yet to be proven.”
It is also noted that Michaels had indicated that a similar search in other states would cost just $200, a significantly lower sum than that which was quoted by Maine’s DHHS.
“Why would it could so much more here in Maine? Whether the answer is interest, inefficiency or incompetence, Maine people deserve to know the cause of these prohibitively expensive prices to comply with FOAA requests, especially if the underlying reason is to discourage such requests,” the senators said in their letter to the OPEGA Chairs.
The senators close their letter by asking OPEGA to expand the scope of the investigation into FOAA requests first launched in February to include “private requests,” such as those made by Michaels.
“We believe expanding the investigation will allow this body to understand the extent of the problem of high charges and deliver corrective action for the people of Maine,” they wrote.
Timberlake and Farrin shared this letter in a statement issued last week, calling out DHHS for attempting to charge high fees to fulfill Mainers’ FOAA requests.
“It is unacceptable for DHHS to continue obfuscating its legal responsibility to make good-faith efforts to comply with FOAA,” Timberlake wrote in this statement. “Fees in the tens of thousands of dollars and timelines of nearly a year fly in the face of the legislative intent of FOAA.”
“I’m truly disappointed, though not surprised, that DHHS continues to shield itself from transparency requirements, even during active oversight investigations,” he added.
“A simple key word search should not require hiring a full-time employee,” said Farrin. “Even after a $30 million overhaul of DHHS software that went live in 2022, we continue to see unacceptable information management in the Department.”
“There is simply no excuse for this type of response to routine requests for public records,” said Farrin.
The senators suggest in their statement that the GOC is likely to consider their request at a meeting later this week.
