Request log

Michigan law gives a public body 5 business days to answer a records request and lets it extend that once, by notice, for up to 10 business days (MCL 15.235).

Each agency received the standard request text as it stood when its request was filed, linked from its row; the current text is on the file your own request page. Where an agency's circumstances call for it the text is adapted, and the adapted text is the one linked from that row. Some rows are requests written for one agency; each row links the text that was sent. A row is added when a request is filed and updated when the agency answers. Click a column heading to sort.

Fees, waivers, appeals and the letters are on each agency's page; the data is requests.csv and appeals.csv.

What the columns mean

A dash means there is nothing to record yet.

• Status. Where the request stands. (Each agency's page and the home page show the agency's state, taking all of its requests together, by the same rules.) Awaiting: an open request, and no records yet. Fee pending: a fee or deposit is unresolved. Fee appeal: we have appealed a fee and the appeal has not been decided. Appeal: we have appealed a denial, or a statement that no records exist, and the appeal has not been decided. In review: records received; the findings drawn from them are published after the agency has had seven days with a draft. Published: the findings are published. Denied: every answered request was denied. No records: the agency stated that no responsive records exist, and any other request was answered the same way or denied. Where an agency's requests stand differently, the first of these that applies is shown: Published, In review, Appeal, Fee appeal, Fee pending, Awaiting, Denied, No records. On a narrow screen the status shows under the agency's name.
• Sent, Received, Answered, Days. We count business days after the day the request is deemed received under MCL 15.235(1), through the day the response was delivered; a request sent by email or through a portal counts as received one business day after it is sent, and that day is day zero. Weekends and the holidays listed in the codebook are skipped. A letter dated earlier and delivered later counts on the day it was delivered.
• Ext. Whether the agency gave notice extending its time to respond.
• Determination. The agency's own answer, in the Act's terms: granted, granted in part and denied in part (shortened here to "Granted in part"), or denied. A statement that no responsive records exist is recorded as such.
• Fee. The first fee the agency stated, or "none" when it stated no fee. The first deposit is in requests.csv; later figures are in the agency's letters, linked from its page.
• Waiver. Every request asks for a waiver or reduction in the public interest (MCL 15.234(2)). The column records the agency's answer: Y, waived; N, declined; asked, not decided in the response; n/a, no fee charged.
• Appeal. Whether we have appealed the agency's fee (MCL 15.240a) or a denial (MCL 15.240) on the request. An appeal goes to the head of the public body; each one, with its text and outcome, is on the agency's page.
• Paid. What we paid for the request. On an answered request, a dash means the fee is not settled.
• Stands. Our coding of the request's status, defined in the codebook. Whether a production covered every item requested is a finding: it is recorded as produced for every item requested, or for some of them, only after the agency has had seven days to review a draft of its findings. Until then the column reads "Produced".

What the records themselves show, including what was withheld, what period a log covers and what format the files came in, is on each agency's page once its findings are published.

Limitations

Every request on this page was filed by one named requester who asked for a public-interest fee waiver and said the results would be made public, so the request log shows how agencies answer an announced request. The standard request text is revised over time and adapted for some agencies, and follow-up requests are written for one agency, so not every agency was asked for exactly the same records; each row links the text that agency received. The business-day counts are ours. Methods has the detail.