LARA Living Room
Inside stories and real conversations from the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. LARA Living Room explores how regulation works, why it matters, and the people making it happen.
LARA Living Room
Understanding FOIA Requests at LARA
Learn how LARA processes FOIA requests, why public access to records matters, and how transparency supports trust in state government.
Welcome back to the LARA Living Room. I'm your host, Anastasha Osborn. We're diving into a topic today that's central to government transparency and accountability, and that is Michigan's Freedom of Information Act, also known as FOIA. FOIA is a law that ensures people can request and access certain public records from state departments like LARA so that that way they can stay informed and participate fully in the democratic process. Now many people don't realize that here at LARA we actually have a dedicated legal affairs office that we refer to as LAO, and they handle all this important work. And so joining me today are two guests who will help us understand it all. We have Nick Gobel, who is the director of our legal affairs office, and then we also have Andrea Mua, and she is the FOIA manager within that legal affairs office. Now Nick is going to start us off with a quick overview of LAO here at LARA, and then Andrea is going to walk us through FOIA, specifically what it is, how it works, and then why it matters for you, the public, and for our LARA staff as well. So go ahead and grab your coffee, settle in, and get comfortable because you are now in the LARA living room. So, Nick, thanks for being here today. Can you start by giving our listeners a quick overview of what the Legal Affairs Office does here at LARA?
Nick Gobbo:Yes, thanks, Anastasha. Happy to be here this morning. Uh LARA's Legal Affairs Office exists to enhance the level of legal and compliance services rendered throughout the department and mitigate risks. Among other things, our work includes providing policy advice regarding legal matters, coordinating legal advice with our counsel and the attorney general's office, reviewing contracts and agreements, and housing various formal roles in the department. Those roles include serving as LARA's ADA Title II coordinator, language access co-coordinator, litigation coordinator, and as we'll obviously be talking in more detail about today, our FOIA coordinator. Andrea Muis serves in that very important role for us.
Anastasha Osborn:Awesome. Thank you, Nick. Andrea, with that, I'd like to go ahead and bring you in. So for people who may not know what exactly is FOIA and why is it such an important part of government?
Andrea Moua:Thank you. So FOIA, or the Freedom of Information Act, is a Michigan law that allows the public to access written information and records upon the submission of a written request to our office. We are a public body for the purposes of FOIA, so everything we do here, more or less, is going to be subject to FOIA. This is important for a couple of reasons. One, we like to say, you know, it keeps the public informed. It gives the public access to records showing what it is we do here all day, every day, and what we're working on. This helps keep citizens informed about the matters of state government and basically our priorities here. LARA regulates so many different areas. Citizens, if they submit FOIA requests, it helps them understand what it is we do on a day-to-day basis because we do so much here. FOIA allows for public oversight. Journalists often submit requests to our office when there are stories of public interest that involve LARA. For example, if a medical doctor licensed by LARA is accused of misconduct or catches the attention of the media for some other reason, they can FOIA us to see what their licensing history with us is, what previous investigations or disciplinary actions have been taken, and previous complaints we've received, if any, on that licensee. It helps journalists and the media report on matters of public concern. And oftentimes their information is found through FOIA. And the last thing that I consider the most important about FOIA is it really keeps us accountable. I do the new employee orientation here at LARA every other week, and I like to stress that anything we do here, anything we put in writing can be read by somebody else. And hopefully that adds an extra layer of accountability and professionalism with our employees and what they're doing at work. We are unable to hide behind like a wall of mysteriousness because of FOIA. So I think that's important to emphasize as well.
Anastasha Osborn:Yeah. No, that's really helpful. And that gives us a lot of examples. So let's just say if you know someone wants to submit a FOIA request here to LARA, what steps should they need to take?
Andrea Moua:So to submit a FOIA request and for it to be valid and for us to get started on processing, you need to submit the request first. It has to be in writing. You can't call in a request, you can't, you know, call your investigator and say, hey, I need this report. We do require it to be in writing because the statute requires that as well. And it does have to contain contact information for us to continue processing it. Again, this is required in the statute. So you can't be anonymous. Sometimes people don't want to give their name, but that doesn't mean you can't use an alias. Just have to provide a name, physical address, and contact information. Sometimes people don't want to give their address either, but we have to be able to send you records if it's in physical copies. And then you do have to describe it sufficiently for us to be able to find what records you're looking for. If it's too vague, you don't describe it well enough. We don't want to guess. We don't want to read between the lines, put our own interpretation in there of what we think you're looking for. So you just have to be very specific with what you're looking for. We do have an online submission form and an online portal that we use to process requests. And we do definitely prefer people submit requests that way. It's just the easiest processing wise. We tend to have a faster turnaround that way versus when people submit requests by mail. You know, sometimes you don't know how long the mail is going to take, mailing back records. So you can submit a request by mail, you can do it through email, and you can do it through our online portal. But the online portal is definitely the best way.
Anastasha Osborn:And then I know I say this a lot during our episodes, but for our listeners, we will put a link to that portal so you are able to access it easily and quickly. Okay, so Andrea, so that seems fairly straightforward as far as the process goes. Um and I kind of want to talk about what kind of records are typically available through FOIA. And then are there any exceptions people should be aware of?
Andrea Moua:That's a good question. So anybody can submit a FOIA request for anything. Um, you know, any type of record that we might have, you can ask for it, but whether or not the exact records you're looking for are what you're going to receive will depend on whether or not the information falls under one of the many FOIA exemptions. The statute does have quite a few. And then there are other statutes that contain additional FOIA exemptions. So, you know, people will FOIA often from us disciplinary actions, complaints about licensees, accounting records that show how we're spending our money, information on cannabis retailers, nursing home inspections, you know, like I said earlier, LARA regulates and covers so much that you can FOIA anything within our jurisdiction. But some of the more common exempt material I'd say that people ask for is an ongoing or are records related to an ongoing investigation. So sometimes, you know, there'll be like a medical professional licensee that's under investigation, and maybe that professional or a patient will want to see, well, what are you doing to investigate? What are where is it at right now in the investigation? And the public health code does prohibit a current investigation from being sent out under FOIA. We basically want to make sure it's wrapped up, right? And we have all the information and the investigating authority has come to a conclusion, you know, we don't want to release just part of the story, I think is the rationale behind that. So current investigation records are going to likely, more often than not, be exempt from release under FOIA. And then, you know, some more of the straightforward stuff that can't be released, you know, we're not going to release social security numbers, personal identifying information, medical information. You know, we deal with so many medical licensees, and there will be medical records within those investigation records. So we're not going to release, you know, personal information like that. And that all falls within FOIA exemptions. Um and then another one I would say that people often ask for in FOIA are the identities of complainants. They'll want to know, you know, who submitted this complaint against my license. And we do not release that information. The public health code prohibits us from releasing that. So unfortunately, that is not going to be released. Yeah.
Anastasha Osborn:No, and that makes sense. And I think it really is all about balancing access while also protecting sensitive information. So let's say now once someone submits a request, I kind of want to talk a little bit about what happens behind the scenes here at LARA.
Andrea Moua:Once we receive the request, we'll then route it to the agencies or bureaus that we think will have responsive information. Since LARA is so big and so far reaching, we, you know, we'll route to any bureau we think could have anything responsive. And we have a helpful system set up here at LARA where each bureau or agency has its own FOIA liaison who we work very closely with. So in our central FOIA office where I work, we're not the ones in most cases doing the searching for the records. We contact the FOIA liaison within each specific bureau, and they're the ones who kind of know who to ask within each bureau or agency for responsive records. So then they, in more times, more times than not, they'll collect the responsive records, review them for exemptions, send them off to us, and then we'll do an audit of the records, make sure everything looks good, and then send out the response to the requester. So it's a lot of searching at the bureau level. You know, we coordinate with the bureaus often. They'll have questions about, you know, do you think this is responsive? Do you think this exemption applies here? So we really do work together. And um yeah, some requests are very straightforward. You know, the liaison will just go find the couple records, upload them, and we send them off and everything's good. But other times it's a more complicated, longer process.
Anastasha Osborn:Okay. And I don't know if we said this at the beginning of the episode, but how big is your office and or how many within FOIA world within your eyes' office are actually helping? Is it just you?
Andrea Moua:No. So we have a central FOIA office on we're housed within the legal affairs office, and it's me, and then we have two staff members who are full-time FOIA. So every day, this is what we're doing. And some days, you know, we're sending out 10 requests, responses, and other days it's 80. It's just every single day we're sending them out. There's never a day where we don't have one due. But since we are a small group, that's why the FOIA liaison setup works well. There's no way us three can handle the 11,000 FOIA requests we get per year. So it is such a um, we work really well together, I think, with our FOIA liaison system.
Anastasha Osborn:Yeah. And I think that's good for um both the public, but I also think for our LARA staff who are listening, um, so they can understand kind of the dynamic um across their bureaus or agencies that there are liaisons that do assist with those. So I think that's really helpful for them to understand. Um, so let's talk about timing and how long does it usually take to process a FOIA request.
Andrea Moua:So the statute requires that we send a response to the requester within five business days of receiving the request. It's not, you know, five business days of when we read it and think about it. It starts immediately upon submission. We have to provide a response within the five business days. So it's a quick turnaround. We can take a one-time extension of an additional 10 business days, which we do for certain requests. You know, they're a little more complicated, might require searching an additional bureau. Um, but we get them in and we get them out very fast. Oftentimes we get them in, or I'm sorry, we get them out within the five business days, you know, a large, very comprehensive request. We can put a fee estimate on it. The statute allows us to charge reasonable fees for our time if it's above a certain threshold. So we do that as well. Um, but we definitely, I would say a majority go out within the five business day time frame. Like I said, we get them in and we get them out very fast.
Anastasha Osborn:So yeah, and something you touched on just now was fees. And I want to quickly just for the public for their knowledge and for our staff. Um, so when someone sends in a FOIA request, right, you're saying you'll let them know how much it would be beforehand?
Andrea Moua:Yes.
Anastasha Osborn:Okay, and then they can decide at that time if they want to move forward with their request.
Andrea Moua:Yes. And sometimes we'll send out our fee estimate, and then the requester will say, you know, I'm not able to pay this amount. Can I amend my request to, you know, take out a couple of the things I asked for at first? And we really like to work with requesters in that way. Um I think every week we work with requesters to lower their fee estimate or try and narrow down what it is they're actually looking for because sometimes people start big, you know, big picture everything, all records you have about a specific topic, but in reality, they're only looking maybe for a specific subject. So we do um really encourage people to reach out to us and we can help with that.
Anastasha Osborn:Yeah, no, that's great. So before we wrap up, I want to kind of ask one last question. And what would you say to the public about why FOIA matters?
Andrea Moua:It matters because I think with a department like LARA, the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, you know, like I've said a couple of times, it's so big. We do so much stuff here. We regulate so many different aspects and areas of life. And, you know, you could probably ask people, well, what do you think LARA does? And people would be like, I don't know, licensing. But I think FOIA within LARA specifically really helps people understand what it is we do here all day, every day. You know, we touch so many different pieces of people's lives with what we do here, and seeing the records behind that can really show people what it is that we do and how much we do here.
Anastasha Osborn:Yeah, no, and I appreciate that. Well, I feel like I've been leaving Nick out of the conversation, but I wanted to leave it open in case there was anything, final thoughts, Nick, that you wanted to share.
Nick Gobbo:No final thoughts on my end. I think Andrea did a great job summarizing what we do here in our legal affairs office, particularly with FOIA.
Anastasha Osborn:Yes, and for our listeners, Nick will be back on. Um, we are actually currently looking at our 2026 schedule lineup, and so this is not the last time we will hear from Nick. He will be back on. He will talk a little bit more about his office and and all the other fun things that they do. So, well, I appreciate both of you being here and joining us today in the LARA living room. FOIA is more than just paperwork. It's about transparency, trust, and making sure the people we serve have access to information about their government. So whether you are a member of the public or you are part of Team LARA, knowing that process and then also the people behind it helps strengthen the connection between citizens and state government. And so we want to thank you for listening today and we hope that you learned something new about the FOIA process. From our living room to yours, we'll see you next time.
