The Rights of Requesters and the Responsibilities of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. The Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), located in § 2.2-3700
et. seq. of the Code of Virginia, guarantees citizens of the Commonwealth and representatives of the media access to
public records held by public bodies, public officials, and public employees.
A public record is any writing or recording -- regardless of whether it is a paper record, an electronic file, an audio
or video recording, or any other format -- that is prepared or owned by, or in the possession of a public body or its
officers, employees or agents in the transaction of public business. All public records are presumed to be open,
and may only be withheld if a specific, statutory exemption applies.
The policy of FOIA states that the purpose of FOIA is to promote an increased awareness by all persons of
governmental activities. In furthering this policy, FOIA requires that the law be interpreted liberally, in favor of access,
and that any exemption allowing public records to be withheld must be interpreted narrowly.
Your FOIA Rights:
You have the right to request to inspect or receive copies of public records, or both.
You have the right to request that any charges for the requested records be estimated in advance.
If you believe that your FOIA rights have been violated, you may file a petition in district or circuit court to
compel compliance with FOIA.
Making a Request for records from DRPT:
You may request records by U.S. Mail, fax, e-mail, in person, or over the phone. FOIA does not require that your request be in writing,
nor do you need to specifically state that you are requesting records under FOIA.
From a practical perspective, it may be helpful to both you and the person receiving your request to put your request in writing. This allows you to
create a record of your request. It also gives us a clear statement of what records you are requesting, so that there is no
misunderstanding over a verbal request. However, we cannot refuse to respond to your FOIA request if you elect not to put it in writing.
Your request must identify the records you are seeking with "reasonable
specificity." This is a common-sense standard. It does not refer to or limit the
volume or number of records that you are requesting; instead, it requires that you be specific
enough so that we can identify and locate the records that you are seeking.
Your request must ask for existing records or documents. FOIA gives you a right to inspect or
copy records; it does not apply to a situation where you are asking general questions about the work of the Agency,
nor does it require DRPT to create a record that does not exist.
You may choose to receive electronic records in any format used by DRPT in the regular course of business. For example, if you are requesting records maintained in an Excel
database, you may elect to receive those records electronically, via e-mail or on a computer disk, or to receive a printed copy of those records.
We inform you in writing that the requested records cannot be found or do not exist (we do not have the records you want). However, if we know that another public body has the requested records, we must include contact information for the other public body in our response to you.
If we have questions about your request, please cooperate with DRPT staff efforts to clarify the type of records that you are seeking, or to attempt to reach a reasonable
agreement about a response to a large request. Making a FOIA request is not an adversarial process, but we may need to discuss your request with you to ensure that we understand what records you are seeking.
To request records from DRPT, you may direct your request to:
Jennifer Pickett
Chief of Policy and Communication
1313 E. Main Street
Suite 300
Richmond, Virginia 23219
(804) 786-7432
Fax: (804) 225-3752 Jennifer.Pickett@drpt.virginia.gov
You may also contact her with questions about requesting records
from DRPT. In addition, the Freedom of Information Advisory Council
is available to answer any questions you may have about FOIA. The Council may
be contacted by e-mail at foiacouncil@leg.state.va.us, or by phone at (804) 225-3056
or 1-866-448-4100.
DRPT’s Responsibilities in Responding to Your Request:
DRPT must respond to your request within five working days of receiving it. "Day One" is considered the day after
your request is received. The five-day period does not include weekends or holidays.
The reason behind your request for public records from DRPT is
irrelevant, and we cannot ask you why you want the records before we
respond to your request. FOIA does, however, allow DRPT to ask you to provide your name and legal address.
FOIA requires that DRPT make one of the following responses to your request within the five-day time period:
We provide you with the records that you have requested in their entirety.
We withhold all of the records that you have requested, because all of the
records are subject to a specific statutory exemption. If all of the records
are being withheld, we must send you a response in writing. That writing
must identify the volume and subject matter of the records being withheld,
and state the specific section of the Code of Virginia that allows us to withhold the records.
We provide some of the records that you have requested, but withhold
other records. We cannot withhold an entire record if only a portion of it
is subject to an exemption. In that instance, we may redact the portion of
the record that may be withheld, and must provide you with the remainder
of the record. We must provide you with a written response stating the specific
section of the Code of Virginia that allows portions of the requested records to be withheld.
If it is practically impossible for DRPT to respond to your
request within the five-day period, we must state this in writing,
explaining the conditions that make the response impossible. This will allow us seven additional
working days to respond to your request, giving us a total of 12 working days to respond to your request.
If you make a request for a very large number of records, and we feel that we
cannot provide the records to you within 12 days without disrupting our other
organizational responsibilities, we may petition the court for additional time to
respond to your request. However, FOIA requires that we make a reasonable
effort to reach an agreement with you concerning the production or the records
before we go to court to ask for more time.
You may have to pay for the records that you request from DRPT.
FOIA allows us to charge for the actual costs of responding to FOIA requests.
This would include items like staff time spent searching for the requested records, copying costs, or any other
costs directly related to supplying the requested records. It cannot include general overhead costs.
If we estimate that it will cost more than $200 to respond to your request, we may
require you to pay a deposit, not to exceed the amount of the estimate, before
proceeding with your request. The five days that we have to respond to your
request does not include the time between when we ask for a deposit and when
you respond.
You may request that we estimate in advance the charges for supplying the
records that you have requested. This will allow you to know about any costs
upfront, or give you the opportunity to modify your request in an attempt to lower
the estimated costs.
If you owe us money from a previous FOIA request that has remained unpaid for
more than 30 days, DRPT may require payment of the past-due bill before it will respond to your new FOIA request.
The Code of Virginia allows any public body to withhold certain records from public
disclosure. DRPT commonly withholds records subject to the following exemptions:
Personnel records (§ 2.2-3705.1 (1) of the Code of Virginia)
Records subject to attorney-client privilege (§ 2.2-3705.1 (2)) or attorney work product (§ 2.2-3705.1 (3))
Vendor proprietary information (§ 2.2-3705.1 (6))
Records relating to the negotiation and award of a contract, prior to a contract being
awarded (§ 2.2-3705.1 (12))
