FINAL UPDATE: A look back

To put it bluntly, filing a FOIA request has been quite an experience. Little did I know how much stress and problems would come with a simple letter requesting documents that were supposed to be readily available to the public. To summarize, I decided to ask Tarrant County to provide me with the property tax rates for a very specific area of a street in south Fort Worth that backs up to the Chisholm Trail Parkway. Using that information, I wanted to see how the planning, construction, and completion of the new toll road affected the values of the homes and property tax values that went from a backyard view of undeveloped land to a fast-paced tollway with cars zooming past at all hours of the day.

At first, I sent the letter via mail, but as described in one of my previous posts, there was no record of it ever getting to the correct address. I had to reprint the letter and hand deliver it to someone who could process my request. After following up for several days inside the 10 day limit (to respond to a FOIA request in the state of Texas), I still had nothing to show for my request. Luckily, my persistence led to a positive response that my request was being processed and would be delivered to my address or could be picked up near the end of this week. This came nearly two weeks after I delivered my letter.

As a journalist, I know I'm going to face similar challenges. This request was straightforward and contained nothing that would be harmful to the government to release. I can only imagine the headache that would be caused by requesting someone's e-mails or something more revealing. Unfortunately, it seems that law or not, FOIA requests seem to be a grinding process that requires patience and kindness. Soon I will have a job of my own, and I'll certainly be a step ahead of my coworkers with this knowledge.

NEW UPDATE: Results are on the way!

Well, the week has finally come where my efforts to file a FOIA with Tarrant County have come to fruition. I called the county clerk's office, where my inquiry was met with a positive answer. The person I talked to assured me that, despite it being several days over the Texas 10 day limit to respond, I would get my request very soon. She apologized for the delay and said that I could come pick them up later this week or pay a small fee to mail them.

This has been a long process, but I'm excited to see my efforts produce some tangible results.

UPDATE: Issues

The long process of getting my FOIA request information hit a brick wall when I called to ask about the progress of the request. Unfortunately, it seems as if the County Clerk's office has no record of my submission, which means that either they misplaced it or it was mailed to the wrong location and never got to the right person. I'm headed downtown to hand deliver my request a little later so this confusion doesn't happen again. I'm not sure why it has been such a difficult task to obtain a narrow selection of property tax records, but a classmate of mine just received his FOIA documents last week that he filed for last semester, so I probably shouldn't be surprised that I'm having just as much trouble. Stay tuned! Hopefully I'll have what I need by the next post.

The FOI Request Letter

Now that I have what I'm looking for, I can go about filling out my request letter to be sent to the Tarrant County Clerk.

Below is a copy of my letter, thanks to plenty of online models to tailor specifically to your request. The letter is pretty straightforward and I shouldn't have any problem getting the documents that I requested. It will be a maximum of ten days until I hear from someone, but I expect to hear in the next two days since I sent the request on Saturday. Stay tuned for the results!

13 December 2014

Tarrant County Clerk
Attn: Room B30
100 Weatherford Street
Fort Worth, Texas  76196-0401

Dear Public Official or Agency:

Under the Texas Public Information Act, §6252-17a et seq., I am requesting an opportunity to inspect or obtain copies of the following public records:

Property tax records of houses between the address 6300 Stockton Drive and 6400 Stockton Drive, Fort Worth, TX, 76132 over the past five years.

In order to help to determine my status to assess fees, you should know that I am a TCU student searching for these records for class. I understand that if I seek a copy of this record, there may be a copying fee. Please inform me of that cost prior to making the copy. I can be reached at 615-519-5299.

The Texas Public Information Act requires that you "promptly produce" the requested records unless, within 10 days, you have sought an Attorney General's Opinion.  If you expect a significant delay in responding to this request, please contact me with information about when I might expect copies or the ability to inspect the requested records.

If you choose to deny the request, then you are required to respond in writing and state the statutory exception authorizing the withholding of all or part of the public record and the name and title or position of the person responsible for the denial.

If there is a problem with my request, please contact me via telephone.

Thank you for your assistance on this matter.

Respectfully,

Tanner Giles
Fort Worth, TX, 76116
615-519-5299

What I'm Requesting

Finally! I'm back to wrap up the FOI project with a few more posts so stay tuned!

The next step in my project was to narrow down exactly what I wanted to send to the County Clerk. I had an idea to examine property tax records for a specific area in order to see how they had changed in the last five years. At first, I was going to inquire about the areas around TCU in light of the recent stories about the house-style dorm properties going up, but then I had a better idea.

Since the Chisholm Trail Parkway is a brand new highway that cuts through both residential and commercial areas, I was curious as to how it affected property value. I noticed that there was a neighborhood just south of the Oakmont Blvd. that had a street of houses facing the highway directly and I knew I wanted to inquire about that. The last five years will show the change from when there was no highway to the time of construction to when the highway was finished. I'll be interested to see how, if at all, anything has changed and if it is better or worse now that construction is finished. I'd certainly be aggravated if my house suddenly faced a toll highway, so I'm excited to get the documents!

Welcome to my FOI blog!

Hey, I'm Tanner Giles and this is my blog. Here, you can find my semester-long results detailing my request for public files. An FOI is an act of gathering information that one may or may not know is available to the public.

You'll be able to get the inside scoop on my search for how property tax rates have changed, particularly around the TCU area. With the information I find, I'll figure out some potential reasons why the tax rates have done what they have.

Stay tuned to the blog for periodic updates throughout the semester!