{"id":794,"date":"2007-05-01T20:27:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-01T20:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=794"},"modified":"2007-05-01T20:27:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-01T20:27:00","slug":"foi-information-on-consulate-news-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=794","title":{"rendered":"FOI information on Consulate news article"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOI Information Provided In
\nConsulate Case
\nTuesday, May 1, 2007 8:50 AM CDT
\nBy Wanda Freeman <\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

TIMES RECORD <\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00b7<\/span> 
\n<\/span>WFREEMAN@SWTIMES.COM<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

A local illegal immigration opponent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit appears
\nto be resolved now that the defendant state agency has complied, an attorney
\nsaid Monday.<\/p>\n

Joe McCutchen, who has in the past participated in the Minuteman Project at the
\nU.S.-Mexico border, last week filed suit in circuit court against Arkansas
\nRehabilitation Services and Robert P. Trevino in his official capacity as
\ncommissioner of the Arkansas Department of Workforce Education.<\/p>\n

McCutchen alleged his rights were denied after Trevino and the agency failed to
\ncomply with his March 14 FOIA request for an unredacted copy of a July 21,
\n2006, e-mail concerning plans to open a Mexican consulate in Arkansas. The
\nconsulate opened Wednesday in Little Rock.<\/p>\n

Assistant Attorney General Bishop Woosley sent a letter Friday to McCutchen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s
\nattorney, Sam \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chip\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sexton III, giving the redacted information and explaining
\nthe delays that led to the lawsuit. <\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

Under the header \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Consulate
\nContract,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the e-mail stated that a person whose name is blacked out had
\nentered into an agreement with Mexico\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s government, and someone whose name is
\nblacked out had \u00e2\u20ac\u0153arranged to purchase the site of the consulate on a 20-year
\nnote.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The estimated monthly payment is also blacked out.<\/p>\n

In his letter, Woosley wrote that the first redaction was the full name of
\ncommercial real estate developer Bruce Burrow, the second redaction was another
\nreference to Burrow as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bruce,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the third redaction was the mortgage
\npayment of $7,500 per month.<\/p>\n

When Trevino first supplied the redacted hard copy to McCutchen in August 2006,
\nWoosley wrote, he believed the redactions \u00e2\u20ac\u0153appeared necessary to comply with
\nthe FOIA, which exempts from disclosure information that might tend to give
\nadvantage to competitors.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Woosley explained that Trevino believed Burrow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name and the proposed mortgage
\nqualified for that exemption because the real estate transaction had not been
\ncompleted.<\/p>\n

After McCutchen filed a more specific request for the e-mail on March 27,
\nTrevino wrote him April 6 stating he would be out of the office because his
\nfather died and would look for the e-mail upon his return around April 13.
\nMcCutchen filed suit April 23, nearly six weeks after his initial request,
\nalleging \u00e2\u20ac\u0153willful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d noncompliance with the FOIA.<\/p>\n

Woosley states in his letter that when Trevino returned to the office he
\ndiscovered he no longer had the unredacted e-mail. No unredacted hard copy had
\nbeen made, and the computer version was deleted with the change of
\nadministration in January.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mr. Trevino responded by letter that he no longer had a copy of that
\nparticular e-mail, but his response letter apparently was received after the
\nlawsuit had been filed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Woosley writes.<\/p>\n

Woosley states that with the completion of the real estate transaction,
\ncompetitive concerns are no longer an issue, and Trevino \u00e2\u20ac\u0153is happy to provide
\nMr. McCutchen with the information that was redacted.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Sexton, who said Monday afternoon that he had not yet withdrawn the lawsuit,
\nconfirmed that the information Woolsey provided satisfied the FOIA request. <\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FOI Information Provided In Consulate Case Tuesday, May 1, 2007 8:50 AM CDT By Wanda Freeman TIMES RECORD \u00c2\u00b7  WFREEMAN@SWTIMES.COM A local illegal immigration opponent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit appears to be resolved now that the defendant state agency has complied, an attorney said Monday. Joe McCutchen, who has in the past participated in … Continue reading FOI information on Consulate news article<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-huckabee-illegal-consulate"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}