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.