The Detroit Public Schools Community District appears to be in violation of the state’s open records law for refusing to release public records containing employee salary information. More than a month after the date the law requires the district to provide the information, it has failed to do so.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy requested the information on Sept. 14. Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act gives government entities up to 15 business days to respond to open records requests. For this request, that meant the deadline was Oct. 5.

District officials have acknowledged receiving inquiries about the status of its response, and said they would follow up, but as of Nov. 9, the district has not provided the requested information.

Cash Caldwell, freedom of information act coordinator for the Detroit Public Schools Community District, said in an Oct. 26 email to the Mackinac Center that he received an email from the department compiling the requested information and that he could have it by the end of that day. But Caldwell did not respond again, and as of Nov. 9, the district had not provided the information..

Responding to a Nov. 2 email from Michigan Capitol Confidential asking about the information request, school district spokeswomen Chrystal Wilson wrote that she was checking with the district’s legal team. Nothing has been heard since then, and Wilson did not respond to a Nov. 9 Michigan Capitol Confidential email.

David Guenthner is senior strategist for state affairs at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Mackinac Center’s first full-time government affairs lobbyist.

Guenthner prepared a list that distills some key facts about the next state Legislature after Tuesday’s election.

The new Senate will have 22 Republicans and 16 Democrats.

REPUBLICANS

• 6 returning senators: Mike Shirkey, Dale Zorn, Peter MacGregor, Ken Horn, Jim Stamas and Wayne Schmidt
• 9 current House members: Jim Runestad, Peter Lucido, John Bizon, Kim LaSata, Lana Theis, Tom Barrett, Dan Lauwers, Roger Victory and Curt VanderWall
• 6 former House members: Ruth Johnson, Aric Nesbitt, Kevin Daley, Rick Outman, Jon Bumstead and Ed McBroom
• 1 with no previous legislative experience: Michael MacDonald

DEMOCRATS

• 2 returning senators: Jim Ananich and Curtis Hertel
• 5 current House members: Stephanie Chang, Sylvia Santana, Erika Geiss, Jeremy Moss and Winnie Brinks
• 3 former House members: Jeff Irwin, Paul Wojno and Sean McCann
• 6 with no previous legislative experience: Adam Hollier, Marshall Bullock, Betty Jean Alexander, Dayna Polehanki, Rosemary Bayer and Mallory McMorrow

The new House will have 58 Republicans and 52 Democrats.

REPUBLICANS

• 36 returning members
• 22 new members

DEMOCRATS

• 28 returning members
• 1 current senator: Rebekah Warren, who was termed out of the Senate but still has two years eligibility in the House
• 23 new members