Public Comments Submitted by Robert Hammond on May 6, 2024
Title: FOIA Advisory Committee Bylaws 2024 05 09 Proposed Changes
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Advisory Committee Bylaws 2024 05 09 Proposed Change".
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FOIA Advisory Committee
Bylaws
Proposed Change Recommendations
PUBLIC COMMENT
May 6, 2024
by
Robert Hammond
foiacompliance@gmail.com
Recommendations
Recommended changes are in bold blue italics.
Article 3. Membership.
[No changes.]
Rationale. I do not agree with reducing from three to two “individuals
representing the interest of non-governmental organizations that advocate for
FOIA matters” or with reducing from two to one “individuals representing
the interests of FOIA requesters who qualify for the “all other FOIA
requester fee category.”” I do not understand reducing from four to three
“FOIA professionals form non-Cabinet-level Departments.” The concurrent
effect is then one less non-governmental representative. If the intent is to
maintain the same number of representatives as the current Committee
(twenty), the membership should state “exactly twenty.” Then some
flexibility in minimums for categories may be understandable. In any event, I
do not concur with reducing from two to one “individuals representing the
interests of FOIA requesters who qualify for the “all other FOIA requester
fee category.””
Article 4. Meetings.
E. Agenda. The DFO, in consultation with the Chairperson, shall approve the
agenda for all meetings. OGIS will distribute the agenda to the members prior
to each meeting. OGIS will post a copy of the agenda to the Committee’s
webpage or subpages at
https://www.archives.gov/ogis/foia-advisory-committee/2022-2024-term in
advance. Any member of the Committee may submit agenda items to the
Chairperson or DFO. Non-members, including members of the public may also
suggest agenda items to the Chairperson or DFO. The draft agenda, draft
briefing slides, and any draft committee recommendations will be posted ten
days prior to the meeting to allow members of the public to prepare.
Rationale. Self-explanatory.
F. Conduct of Meetings. The Chairperson will call meetings to order,
following which the members will state their presence. The Chairperson will
then read or reference the certified minutes of the previous meeting. The
Chairperson will make announcements, ask for reports from subcommittees or
individual members as previously arranged, open discussion of unfinished
business, introduce new business, and invite members to comment on any
business. Public oral comment may be invited at any time during the meeting,
but most likely at the meeting’s end, unless the meeting notice advised
that written comment was to be accepted in lieu of oral comment. Not less
than 15 minutes will be allotted to oral public comments regardless of the
number of callers. Members of the public may seek additions to the Agenda,
which will receive a written reply. Members of the public may use briefing
slides provided in advance for their oral public comments. YouTube Chat
Comments will be turned on as the only acceptable reasonable accommodation
for speech and hearing-impaired persons – and members of the public – to
participate contemporaneously in the meeting and have their time-stamped,
unfiltered, substantive comments preserved for the thousands of persons who
will view the YouTube videos later.
Upon completion of the Committee's business, as agreed upon by the members
present, the DFO will adjourn the meeting.
Rationale.
Excluding oral public comments may be a violation of multiple statutes.
Nevertheless, it is contrary to the public interest.
The OGIS chairperson has limited oral public comments to just three minutes
per commenter and then refused to allow a member of the public (me) to
continue or be recognized a second time when there was time left. Essentially
the OGIS chairperson limited oral public comments to three minutes total by
refusing to recognize me a second time when there were no other callers.
Three minutes of public comments per meeting does not satisfy the requirement
to allow public comments.
G. Minutes. The DFO will prepare minutes. Draft minutes and transcripts,
addressing fully all oral and written public comments, all You-Tube top chant
comments, and WEBEX comments shall be posted within 30 days for public review
with a ten-day comment period to assure accuracy. The Chairperson will
certify the accuracy of the minutes within [delete 90] 45 calendar days.
Copies of the minutes will be published on the Committee’s web page once
certified. The minutes will include a record of the persons present
(including the names of committee members, names of staff, and the names of
members of the public from whom written or oral presentations were made and
those registered to participate via WEBEX.) and a description of the matters
discussed and conclusions reached, and copies of all reports,
recommendations, or other materials received, issued or approved by the
Committee.
Rationale.
• Past certified meeting minutes have been materially inaccurate when
compared to the contemporaneous transcripts, yet OGIS has refused to correct
them.
• Past meeting minutes have not included any discussion of the content of
oral or written comments other than noting that they exist, which is
extremely problematic.
• Allowing 90 days to post meeting minutes is ridiculous and does not serve
the public interest. Also, minutes are not even posted within 90 days; often
being posted the night before the next FOIA Advisory Committee meeting and
thus not being subject to careful review.
• Substantive comments and questions from the YouTube top chat and the
Webex chat must be addressed or copies of them appended to the minutes.
• Persons wanting to participate in a public meeting should have the
minutes of the last meeting well in advance, and those minutes must be
complete and accurate.
H. Public Comment. Members of the public may attend any meeting, or any
portion of a meeting, that is open to the public, and may at the
determination of the Chairperson, offer public comment during a meeting. The
meeting announcement published in the Federal Register may note that oral
comment from the public is excluded and in such circumstances invite written
comment as an alternative. Members of the public may submit written
statements to the Committee at any time. Public Comments posting policy shall
be approved by the Committee.
Rationale.
Excluding oral public comments may be a violation of multiple statutes.
Nevertheless, it is contrary to the public interest.
OGIS’s public posting policy appears contrary to law and the public
interest. In response to a Congressional inquiry, NARA/OGIS changed its’
public comments posting policy (still contrary to law and the public
interest) days before responding and misleading Congress that the changed
policy was in effect at the time of the inquiry.
The current public comments posting policy is unreasonable (as contemplated
by statute) and overly restrictive in excluding comments regarding OGIS.
OGIS’s current practice of limiting written public comments to 25,000
characters of text only is unworkable and does not permit tables, graphs or
even accommodate the full text of most comments. If the issue is ADA
compliance of PDF documents posted to the web, the number of written public
comments is infinitesimally small compared to the number of PDF documents
posted by NARA every day. Also, PDF documents may be “saved as” HTML to
meet accessibility requirements and standards of Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, (29 U.S.C. §794d).
See my prior written public comment, “Archivist of USA & OGIS Posting
Policy Does Not Comport with Law.”
Article 6. Committee Officers and Responsibilities.
D. Designated Federal Officer. The FACA requires each advisory committee to
have a DFO and an alternate, one of whom must be present for all meetings.
OGIS staff serves as the DFO and alternate for the Committee. Any meeting
held without the DFO or alternate present will be considered as a
subcommittee, subgroup, or working group meeting. The DFO will: (1) call the
meeting of the Committee or Subcommittee(s); (2) approve the agenda for all
meetings; (3) attend the meetings of the Committee and Subcommittee(s); (4)
adjourn the meeting of the committee or Subcommittee(s); and (5) chair any
meeting when so directed by the AOTUS. The DFO shall keep an accurate
timecard related to those duties, which shall be provided to GSA and
available for public inspection.
Rationale.
In its FOIA Advisory Committee is chartered under the second United States
Open Government National Action Plan.
In its annual reports to GAO identifying FOIA Advisory Committee Resources,
NARA reports that the DFO is a full-time position.
However, OGIS reports in its annual Ombuds reports to the President and
Congress that DFO, Kirstin Mitchell, is the FOIA compliance team lead, which
has only two other persons, both hired after March 2022. Kirstin Mitchell
cannot effectively manage oversight of over one million FOIA requests and
countless administrative appeals while serving as full-time DFO. One, or
likely both, the afore-mentioned reports are materially inaccurate as to
resources.
NARA continues to grossly underfund OGIS support for this Committee. It is
not the role of this Committee to ration scarce OGIS resources; rather it is
to demand sufficient resources for effective execution of OGIS’s missions.
Hammond Public Comments. Document Cloud Alphabetical (25 per page on web, not
alphabetical) Search as shown below:
site:documentcloud.org Hammond Public Comments #
FOIA Advisory Committee Bylaws2024 05 09 Proposed Changes 1
Right of Civilian Employees to DOJ Representation in Litigation Gone Bad 2
“The Uncommon Man” Re: Hon. David S. Ferriero 3
Status of 2018 - 2020 Recommendation #19 4
Draft Proposed Model Agency Determination Letter Comment #2 5
Sample FOIA Template to Combat Agency Misconduct 20220616 6
Foreseeable Harm Standard Errantly Cited - Proposed B5 Model Letter 7
DOD’s CFR 32 PART 310 is Contrary to Law 8
DOJ OIP “FOIA Reference Mode is Contrary to Law 9
Expedited FOIA Processing Malfeasance - NARA FY 2020 & FY2021 10
Foreseeable Harm Standard. DOJ OIP Misinformation + Navy Misconduct and
Idiocy 11
Agency FY 2022 Admissions of Error to FY 2021 FOIA Reports 12
OGIS Disrespects FOIA Requesters. 2023 04 25 Chief FOIA Officers Meeting 13
NARA FY 2022 FOIA Fraud 14
Chief FOIA Officers Council April 25, 2023 Meeting - Hammond Oral Comments 15
FOIA Advisory Committee Meeting March 2, 2023. Hammond Comments 16
Centrally Funded FOIA Portal and Case Managements Platform for all Federal
Agencies 17
Combining Appeals Across FY - NARA Massive FOIA Fraud 18
DOJ OIP Unlawful Standard Glomar Response with Implicit (b)(1) & (b)(7 19
Navy FY 2018 Appeals Disappeared 20
Navy FOIA Fraud - False Reporting, Refusal of FOIA.gov, etc. 21
FOIA Advisory Committee Meeting December 1 2022. Hammond Comments v3 22
Navy FOIA Misconduct. No IDA Letter & Fee Abuse. DON-NAVY-2023- 000588 23
Individualized Tracking Numbers. NARA FOIA Fraud. Hatch Act Violations 24
OGIS & Navy FOIA Fraud. Mediation, ECDs, False FOIA Reporting 25
Foreseeable Harm Standard Vanita Gupta. November 3, 2022 CFO Meeting 26
Sued into Oblivion. Foreseeable Harm Standard 27
Senator Grassley - DOJ OIP's Position Doesn't Pass the Common Sense Test 28
Subpoena Threat & Congressional Demand for OGIS to Release Records. OMB Kills
Recommendations. What has changed 29
Posting FOIA Logs. Tech Committee Recommendation #2. FOIA Ombudsman
Inaccurate Citation 30
Moot Appellate Determinations 31
OGIS Funding and Case Accountability Logs 32
Preserve FOIAonline Records + Decertify FOIA.gov + Audit NARA + Post FOIA
Logs 33
HOT! Semo OGIS. Budget Numbers do not Comport w. NARA Published Budgets! 34
Mandatory Right to OGIS Dispute Resolution - OGIS Malfeasance 20220616 35
Comments to Unlawful Chief FOIA Officers Meeting of November 17 2021 36
OGIS & DOJ OIP Misstate Recommendation to Post FOIA Logs - Why 37
Hammond Questions Comments for September 8 2022 meeting. OGIS and DOJ OIP
Lack of Funding w.attach 38
FOIA Line-Item Budgets Now. Let the citizens be heard. Retire FOIA Bob 39
Failure - FOIA Compliance Oversight & Funding. Part 2. No Joking Matter 40
All Panelist Chat to June 9, 2022 FOIA Advisory Committee Meeting. OGIS DOJ
Funding + Missing FOIA.gov Data 41
Senators Unite to Slam FOIA Compliance + POGO 42
DOD Massive False FOIA Reporting. Part 1. Letter to SECDEF, Complaint to DOJ
OIG 43
DOJ OIP (Inaccurate) CFO Report Assessment 2022 44
2022- 2024 FOIA Advisory Committee Inaugural Meeting. DOJ OIP OGIS Grossly
Underfunded 45
NARA FY 2022 Data Stripped From FOIA.gov 46
2022- 2024 FOIA Advisory Committee Bylaws - Recommended Changes 47
NARA, PLEASE FUND OGIS!! (PART 1). Robert Hammond September 9, 2021 Speaker
Notes 48
DOD FOIA Misconduct Part V. Navy FY 2018 Appeals Dispositions Bases Not
Reported 49
DOD FOIA Misconduct Part IV. FY 2018 Appeals Disappeared + DOJ OIP & OGIS
Underfunded, Thus Ineffective 50
NARA FOIA & Financial Malfeasance $789,730 + Alteration of Records and Loss
of Public Trust 51
DOD MASSIVE FALSE REPORTING PART II + Still Interested Abuse. Updated July
27, 2022 52
DOJ OIP Compliance Inquiries 53
DOD Massive False Reporting Part III. 5-year Late Acknowledgements Unusual
Circumstances Abuse + 54
Hammond Recommendations and Chat Comments to 4.7.2022 FOIA Advisory Committee
Meeting 55
Violations of the ADA in FOIA Redactions, Simple Solution 56
FOIAonline - Recommended System Changes 57
OGIS Negligence Generally & Improper June 29, 2022 FOIA Meeting 58
OGIS Posting Policy for Public Comments 59
QUESTIONS for June 29, 2022 OGIS Annual FOIA Meeting v2 60
Response to Hon. David S. Ferriero June 10 2021 Comments to FOIA Advisory
Committee 61
Senate Hearing on FOIA. DOJ's Lack of Enforcement. Malfeasance. Open the
Government 62
DOD Cites Change to CFR 32 CFR part 286.4 as Unlawful Basis for Omitting OGIS
Mediation Rights 20220626 63