The county recently conducted an internal review of the public defender’s office and determined two of the top attorneys should be required to resign. One did. The other got a different job in the county.
I FOILed for a copy of the “work product” — whatever it was the law firm hired to perform the review determined — and the county attorney denied the request in full. Am I not entitled to a redacted copy at least? Or is he right that all of it is exempt? I intend to appeal just the same.
You are correct: you should at the very least receive a redacted report. There are opinions, such as the one linked below, holding that a blanket denial is not appropriate.
Committee on Open Government advisory opinion F18994
The Buffalo News filed a lawsuit regarding the report they FOILed in the opinion above and won. All but four pages of the report were released.
There was a similar issue in Watertown a few years ago. The city manager resigned and an investigative report was done. A local news station sued and a State Supreme Court judge agreed the report could be released. The report in that case was not done by an attorney, but we believe the same argument applies as far as they can redact items but not withhold the entire report.
