RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Documents requested from Richmond’s government under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) could become a lot more accessible to the public at large, should a newly-introduced ordinance be approved. City leaders say this is about increasing governmental transparency.
FOIA requests are powerful tools. VirginiaFOIA law allows individuals or organizations to request that public records from local or state governments be compiled and released. It’s considered a “sunshine law,” named such because it shines a metaphorical light on governing agencies.
There are some restrictions on FOIA requests. For example, governments are allowed to redact certain types of protected information from documents. They are also not required to release records that do not exist — meaning, they do not have to create a new document to fulfill a request.
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Typically, when someone submits a FOIA request, the documents associated with that request are just issued to the person who asked for them…