SENATE BILL NO. 840

March 12, 2020, Introduced by Senators MCBROOM, MOSS, LUCIDO, BULLOCK, BAYER, POLEHANKI, MCMORROW, IRWIN, GEISS, BRINKS, MCCANN, RUNESTAD, WOJNO, BARRETT, HERTEL and HOLLIER and referred to the Committee on Oversight.

"Freedom of information act,"

(MCL 15.231 to 15.246) by adding section 25.

the people of the state of michigan enact:

Sec. 25. (1) Except as provided in section 23, to inspect or receive a copy of a public record under this part, a person shall submit a written request for the public record to the LORA coordinator of the public body. A written request made by facsimile, electronic mail, or other electronic transmission under this part is not considered to be received by a public body's LORA coordinator until 1 business day after the electronic transmission is made. However, if a written request is sent by electronic mail and delivered to the public body's spam or junk mail folder, the request is not received until 1 day after the public body first becomes aware of the written request. The public body shall note in its records both the time a written request is delivered to its spam or junk-mail folder and the time the public body first becomes aware of that request.

(2) Unless otherwise agreed to in writing by the person making the request, a public body shall respond to a request for a public record within 5 business days after the public body receives the request by doing 1 of the following:

(a) Granting the request.

(b) Issuing a written notice to the requesting person denying the request.

(d) Issuing a notice extending for not more than 10 business days the time by which the public body must respond to the request. A public body shall not issue more than 1 notice of extension for each request.

(3) Failure to respond to a request pursuant to subsection (2) constitutes a public body's final determination to deny the request if either of the following applies:

(a) The failure was willful and intentional.

(b) The written request included language that conveyed a request for information within the first 250 words of the body of a letter, facsimile, electronic mail, or electronic mail attachment, or specifically included the words, characters, or abbreviations for "freedom of information", "open records", "information", "LORA", "copy", or a recognizable misspelling of such, or appropriate legal code reference to this part, on the front of an envelope or in the subject line of an electronic mail, letter, or facsimile cover page.

(4) A written notice denying a request for a public record in whole or in part is a public body's final determination to deny the request or portion of that request. The written notice shall contain all of the following:

(a) An explanation of the basis under this part or other statute for the determination that the public record, or portion of that public record, is exempt from disclosure, if that is the reason for denying all or a portion of the request.

(b) A certificate that the public record does not exist under the name given by the requester or by another name reasonably known to the public body, if that is the reason for denying the request or a portion of the request.

(c) A description of a public record or information on a public record that is separated or deleted pursuant to section 29e, if a separation or deletion is made.

(d) A full explanation of the requesting person's right to do either of the following:

(i) Submit a written request for reconsideration to the public body's LORA coordinator that specifically states the word "reconsideration", "appeal", "redetermination", or "reverse" and identifies the reason or reasons for reversal of the disclosure denial.

(ii) Seek final review of the denial under section 29a.

(5) The individual designated under sections 26 to 28 as a LORA coordinator or under section 29 as a LORA coordinator designee shall sign the written notice of denial.

(6) If a public body issues a notice extending the period for a response to the request, the notice shall specify the reasons for the extension and the date by which the public body will do 1 of the following:

(a) Grant the request.

(b) Issue a written notice to the requesting person denying the request.

(7) If a public body makes a final determination to deny in whole or in part a request to inspect or receive a copy of a public record or portion of a public record, the requesting person may seek reconsideration or appeal of the denial as provided in section 29a.

Enacting section 1. This amendatory act takes effect January 1, 2021.

Enacting section 2. This amendatory act does not take effect unless Senate Bill No. 837 of the 100th Legislature is enacted into law.