Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

The Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), located in § 2.2-3700 et seq. of the Code of Virginia (1950, as amended) (hereinafter, Va. Code), guarantees citizens of the Commonwealth and representatives of the media access to public records held by public bodies, public officials, and public employees.

A public record is any writing or recording–regardless of whether it is a paper record, an electronic file, an audio or video recording, or any other format–that is prepared or owned by, or in the possession of a public body or its officers, employees or agents in the transaction of public business. All public records are presumed to be open, and may only be withheld if a specific, statutory exemption applies.

The policy of FOIA states that the purpose of FOIA is to promote an increased awareness by all persons of governmental activities. In furthering this policy, FOIA requires that the law be interpreted liberally, in favor of access, and that any exemption allowing public records to be withheld must be interpreted narrowly.

• You have the right to request to inspect or receive copies of public records, or both.
• You have the right to request that any charges for the requested records be estimated in advance.
• If you believe that your FOIA rights have been violated, you may file a petition in district or circuit court to compel compliance with FOIA. Alternatively, you may contact the FOIA Council for a nonbinding advisory opinion.

How to Make a FOIA Request

To request records from the Washington County Public Library, you may direct your request to Molly Schock, the Library’s FOIA Officer. She can be reached at 205 Oak Hill Street, Abingdon, VA 24210 or by phone at 276-492-2013, by fax at 276-676-6235 or by e-mail at mschock@wcpl.net. You may also contact her with questions you have concerning requesting records from the Library.

Responding to Your Request

The Library will respond to your request within five working days of receiving it. “Day One” is considered the day after your request is received. The five-day period does not include weekends or holidays.

FOIA requires that the Library make one of the following responses to your request within the five-day time period:

• We provide you with the records that you have requested in their entirety.
• We withhold all of the records that you have requested, because all of the records are subject to a specific statutory exemption. If all of the records are being withheld, we must send you a response in writing. That writing must identify the volume and subject matter of the records being withheld, and state the specific section of the Code of Virginia that allows us to withhold the records.
• We provide some of the records that you have requested, but withhold other records. We cannot withhold an entire record if only a portion of it is subject to an exemption. In that instance, we may redact the portion of the record that may be withheld, and must provide you with the remainder of the record. We must provide you with a written response stating the specific section of the Code of Virginia that allows portions of the requested records to be withheld.
• We inform you in writing that the requested records cannot be found or do not exist (we do not have the records you want). However, if we know that another public body has the requested records, we must include contact information for the other public body in our response to you.
• If it is practically impossible for the Library to respond to your request within the five-day period, we must state this in writing, explaining the conditions that make the response impossible. This will allow us seven additional working days to respond to your request, giving us a total of 12 working days to respond to your request.

Costs

A public body may make reasonable charges not to exceed its actual cost incurred in accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for the requested records. No public body shall impose any extraneous, intermediary, or surplus fees or expenses to recoup the general costs associated with creating or maintaining records or transacting the general business of the public body. Any duplicating fee charged by a public body shall not exceed the actual cost of duplication. All charges for the supplying of requested records shall be estimated in advance at the request of the citizen as set forth in Va. Code §2.2-3704 (F).

You may have to pay for the records that you request from the Library. FOIA allows us to charge for the actual costs of responding to FOIA requests. This would include items like staff time spent searching for the requested records, copying costs or any other costs directly related to supplying the requested records. It cannot include general overhead costs.

If we estimate that it will cost more than $200 to respond to your request, we may require you to pay a deposit, not to exceed the amount of the estimate, before proceeding with your request. The five days that we have to respond to your request does not include the time between when we ask for a deposit and when you respond.

You may request that we estimate in advance the charges for supplying the records that you have requested. This will allow you to know about any costs upfront, or give you the opportunity to modify your request in an attempt to lower the estimated costs.

If you owe us money from a previous FOIA request that has remained unpaid for more than 30 days, the Library may require payment of the past-due bill before it will respond to your new FOIA request.

General Guidelines

Your request must identify the records you are seeking with “reasonable specificity.” This is a common-sense standard. It does not refer to or limit the volume or number of records that you are requesting; instead, it requires that you be specific enough so that we can identify and locate the records that you are seeking.

Your request must ask for existing records or documents. FOIA gives you a right to inspect or copy records; it does not apply to a situation where you are asking general questions about the work of the Library, nor does it require the Library to create a record that does not exist.

You may choose to receive electronic records in any format used by the Library in the regular course of business.

You may be contacted if there are questions about a request, to ensure that the appropriate records are being provided.

Documents

FOIA Rights and Responsibilities

FOIA Fee Policy

FOIA Request for Records

Exemptions

The Code of Virginia allows any public body to withhold certain records from public disclosure. The Library commonly withholds records subject to the following exemptions:

• Personnel Records
• Records subject to attorney-client privilege (Va. Code §2.2-3705.1 (2)) or attorney work product (Va. Code §2.2-3705.1 (3))
• Vendor proprietary information (Va. Code §2.2-3705.1 (6))
• Records relating to the negotiation and award of a contract, prior to a contract being awarded (Va. Code §2.2-3705.1 (12))
• Records used in closed session for Economic Development prospect/negotiations not announced by the governing body (Va. Code § 2.2-3705.1 (5))

Additional Information

The Freedom of Information Advisory Council is available to answer any general questions you may have about FOIA. Email the Council or call them at 804-225-3056 or (toll free) 866-448-4100. The FOIA Council provides this public comment form that you may submit with feedback on the quality of assistance you received.