Right-To-Know Who You Are

There is an ongoing battle being waged with anonymous Right-To-Know [“RTK”] requests being submitted by an entity known as FOIABuddy.  The  Pennsylvania Office of Open Records [“OOR”] recently weighed in on the controversy, and concluded that  a school district had the right to deny a RTK request since the request was anonymous and the school district had a policy that it would not accept an anonymous RTK request.  In the Matter of Frank Curry and FOIABuddy v. Southwestern School District, AP 2024-1311(June 20, 2024).

A purported individual named Frank Curry and FOIABuddy submitted a RTK request seeking records for IT operations, contacts, staff, and IT budgets. The District denied the request stating that it was anonymous, and that Frank Curry had to prove that he was a qualified requester (i.e. a person that is a legal resident of the United States). Apparently, Mr. Curry used FOIA Buddy’s anonymous request function that conceals a person’s identity by using FOIABuddy to submit a request on the person’s behalf.  The contact information on the request form is for FOIABuddy, and it is an automated message that states that no questions regarding a request would be returned.

The OOR cited to Section 702 and 703 of the RTK law. Section 702 states that agencies may fulfill verbal, written or anonymous verbal or written requests. Section 703 states in part that a written request shall include the name and address to which an agency should address its response.

The OOR interprets these sections as affording agencies the discretion to fulfill or ignore anonymous requests, and that a name and address of the person making the request are required.  It remains to be seen if FOIABuddy will appeal the OOR decision.

The best practice is to make sure that your municipality’ s RTK policy includes language prohibiting anonymous requests.  MPL Law Firm can assist with drafting such a policy.