The Gainesville Sun has published an article about Erin Friedberg, a former City of Gainesville employee who is suing the City over her termination. In support of her lawsuit, Friedberg made a public records request for all of her City emails. The price tag for about 56,000 emails…$40,000.
While that may seem outrageous (and it is) I’ve seen this kind of nonsense with increasing regularity. It’s a very old trick; demand ridiculously high fees for producing records and the requestor will just go away.
Friedberg is now suing the City of Gainesville not only for her alledged wrongful termination but also over what she claims is a denial of access to public records. While I have no opinion about her employment lawsuit I hope she kick the City to curb over the public records issues.
unreal…
Was the request for electronic copies or hard copies? Electronic copies should be substantially cheaper. I, too, wish her luck. Dealing with a recalcitrant administration is more than frustrating.