Detroit school district took 73 days to produce public records

Seventy-three days after being asked, the Detroit Public Schools Community District produced COVID-19 spending documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

Michigan Capitol Confidential requested a line-item report of how the district spent roughly $1.2 billion of federal COVID funds. The district violated Michigan law by extending its date to provide a cost estimate twice and extending the estimated production date another two times.

“This is one of the most extreme examples of a complete disregard for transparency that I have ever seen,” said Steve Delie, director of transparency and open government for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

“Detroit Public Schools seems to be operating under the impression that they can simply respond to FOIA at their leisure, rather than according to what the law requires.”

Serious changes are needed if this is the district’s standard response, Delie said.

CapCon submitted the request Aug. 27. The district responded on Aug. 28 that it was taking a 10-business day extension as allowed by law. On Sept. 13, the extension expired, but the district did not provide a good-faith estimate of the cost to provide the documents.

On Sept. 18, district officials sent another letter to CapCon extending the timeline to produce the good-faith estimate, an act which violated the FOIA law.

“A public body shall not issue more than 1 notice of extension for a particular request,” the law reads.

District officials said they would produce the documents on Oct. 9. But on that date, the district sent another letter, saying it would release the records Oct. 30. When that date approached, the district wrote that it had not identified the requested information and would take another extension.

Twice, then, the district extended the date to provide a cost estimate, violating state law. And twice it extended the time it had to produce the documents, which also violated the law.

“It is my understanding that District staff will be fulfilling the FOIA request today or tomorrow,” said Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of Detroit Public Schools, in a Nov. 4, email to CapCon.

The school district fulfilled the request on Nov. 8.