Freedom of information is not the same as free information, as one community college in Michigan recently illustrated.
The information comes from posts on X by attorney Mark Randazza.
“A client of mine made a public records request of a community college in Flint Michigan that has an annual revenue of $95 million. To respond to her public records request… they want $29 million,” Randazza posted on Tuesday.
The college in question is Mott Community College.
Randazza attached an image of a communication from Leo Powers, assistant to the college’s general counsel.
“The College’s good faith estimate of the cost to the College to comply with your request … is $28,904,844.60,” the letter read.
A client of mine made a public records request of a community college in Flint Michigan that has an annual revenue of $95 million.
To respond to her public records request… they want $29 million. pic.twitter.com/2epumhNr9n
— Marc J. Randazza 🇺🇸 🇮🇹 🇧🇷 (@marcorandazza) April 1, 2025
“The cost is based on an estimated 600,000 hours of staff time at $48.17 per hour to search for, retrieve, review, examine, and separate exempt material from any non-exempt, to generate report, review, redact exempt materials to review non-exempt material to determine student status,” the response read.
Even if the request includes emails with personal information, is the college out of line for trying to charge nearly $30 million for a Freedom of Information request?
The letter also counted 32 hours at $48.17 per hour to redact materials and create electronic copies, six hours at $70 to “provide to the appropriate department for review,” and another 20 hours at $44.23 for the same purpose.
“Therefore, since the cost of complying with your request exceeds $50, the College is permitted to require that a good faith deposit be made before the College begins gathering the material,” the letter said. “Therefore, upon receipt of your deposit of $14,452,422.00, we will begin gathering the material.”
In a separate post, Randazza indicated what was being requested.
Here is what she was requesting… this costs $29 million to respond to it. pic.twitter.com/LZ2krneHF1
— Marc J. Randazza 🇺🇸 🇮🇹 🇧🇷 (@marcorandazza) April 1, 2025
“Here is what she was requesting… this costs $29 million to respond to it,” he wrote.
The requested information included the GPA for the top 10 percent of the college’s students, GPA eligibility for the Phi Theta Kappa college honor society, the percentage of students who met that standard, and information on how the data is compiled.
The request included “any lists, student counts, or documentation regarding PTK-eligible members generated and provided to PTK or PTK chapter advisors at this campus,” and information about PTK at Mott dating back as far as 2012.
Randazza also made another post with a December email from Kristi Dawley, acting associate vice president of human resources, to Randazza’s client saying the college agreed to provide her the requested information as long as the $28.9 million was paid.
Dawley said the estimate was compiled using “the hourly wage of the lowest paid College employee capable of performing the foregoing work needed to comply with your request.”
The Western Journal has reached out to the college for comment, but none has yet been received.
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