information
and
digest
it
and disseminate it to the
public, and this is that kind
of circumstance,” Eaton said.
“This particular Freedom of
Information Act request asked
for the location of everywhere
in the city that the city has
removed
lead
gooseneck
connections from the water
main to the home’s supply
line, and it also asks for the
location of every home that
has galvanized pipe from the
water main at the street to the
house.”
The decision to release
the
information
comes
after the state put stricter
lead
regulations
in
place.
In
June,
Michigan
started enforcing the toughest
laws in the country for lead
levels
in
drinking
water
following
the
Flint
water
crisis, in which the city’s
thousands of residents have
been exposed to lead from the
city’s water pipes. The rules
dropped the “action level”
at which utilities must take
corrective action from the
federal limit of 15 parts of
lead per billion to 12 ppb by
2025. The rules prohibited
the partial alteration of lead
pipes save for emergencies,
while lead service lines buried
underground are set to be
switched out by 2040.
According to city officials,
all known lead elements have
been taken out of Ann Arbor’s
water
system.
However,
galvanized supply lines that
remain in place could still
retain
lead,
which
could
contaminate drinking water.
Eaton said the location of
the lead goosenecks the city
has replaced should be “readily
available.” He added he did not
believe the city should charge
the newspaper for the costs
involved in completing a list
of these locations when he felt
the city should have compiled
the list itself anyway.
City Administrator Howard
Lazarus said he worried about
the precedent this would set
for future FOIA requests,
saying covering the cost could
change the intention of
future requests.
“While I recognize the
intent of Councilmember
Eaton’s
desire,
there
are very real concerns
about this,” Lazarus said.
“Many times we hear
council talk about the
slippery slope. This is a
slippery slope. The ability
to recover costs from a
FOIA request is in many
ways a counter that keeps
the FOIA process from
being used as punitive
and disruptive, and these
$400 is something that a
for-profit such as MLive
ought to be able cover and
it is, in fact, consistent
with past practice.”
Lazarus
rejected
a
fee waiver in October,
maintaining the $667.94
was
necessary
to
reimburse
Ann
Arbor
for the time the city’s
public services manager
would have to dedicate to
locating the information.
However, the Ann Arbor News
argued the law bars a public
entity from charging more
than the hourly pay of the
lowest-paid employee capable
of
handling
the
request.
The city then dropped the
fee to $409.71 and assigned
a
different
employee
to
complete the task.
Both Councilmember Julie
Grand, D-Ward 3, and City
Attorney
Stephen
Postema
echoed
Lazarus’s
concerns
about waiving the FOIA fee,
saying continuing to do so
for other requests would be
untenable.
Councilmember
Chip
Smith,
D-Ward
5,
added an amendment to the
resolution to waive the FOIA
fee to make the compiled
information
suitable
for
distribution to all of the
public, as opposed to just
being provided to MLive.
Transparency
in
city
government
has
been
a
campaign
issue
of
City
Council
candidates
for
years,
and
the
council
has debatedFOIA fee waivers
in the past. Councilmember
Ali Ramlawi, D-Ward 5, said
there was a greater urgency
for government transparency
after the Flint water crisis.
“Many in the community
are
asking
for
greater
transparency
and
greater
public safety in light of what
happened in Flint,” Ramlawi
said.
Councilmember Elizabeth
Nelson, D-Ward 4, said she
had heard concerns among
residents about the lack of
information.
“I
think
it
would
be
helpful,” Nelson said. “It’s
probably information that the
city had to compile anyway,
and making it public would
be useful to know what time
period of homes is most likely
to be affected, if there are
patterns to which homes had
this problem address already
or still need it to be addressed.”
SANTA VISITS KE RRY TOWN
2A — Monday, November 26, 2018
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“Many in the
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and greater
public safety”