Veteran reporter offers tips on gaining public records, narrowing FOIA requests

The National Press Club Journalism Institute interviewed NPC member and investigative journalist Miranda Spivack on advice for journalists when faced with roadblocks to open access records. Spivack is a veteran reporter and editor who specializes in stories about government accountability and secrecy, and urban development. Her new book, “Backroom Deals in Our Backyards: How Government Secrecy Harms Our Communities and the Local Heroes Fighting Back,” will be available this May. 

Institute:The recent firings of FOIA officers have experts worried about open access across the country. How do you see this impacting access at the local level?  

Spivack: The illegal dismissals of many federal employees — including those who handle the federal Freedom of Information Act, which allows the public to obtain public records, data and documents — will have a broad and lasting impact on Americans and others seeking to extract information from the federal government. 

But many federal agencies are communicating directly with the states and local governments to issue orders, and so anyone looking for federal information should ask their state and local governments for those communications and the data, documents, and other public records that accompany those orders. 

This type of triangulation is always useful in public records requests: Figure out who else has the information you are seeking and ask for them to provide it.

Institute: What are some examples of public records that journalists might not think to request when covering local government? 

Spivack: Always ask for public officials’ calendars and who they spoke to on the phone, by video call and in person. Ask for notes from those contacts. Ask for reports that lead to the issuance of an occupancy permit. Ask for contracts with outside vendors on a regular basis and crosscheck those contracts with campaign finance reports at the local, state, and federal levels. 

Also: restaurant inspection reports, school health and safety reports, nursing home and care home safety inspection reports, fire marshall reports. Any type of environmental report that the states and localities compile themselves and also must supply to the federal government. Same with education data. 

Figure out what reports the states and localities have to make to the feds and ask for those. Do this regularly, so that the state and local governments begin to become accustomed to these requests and have them ready for you. (Hope springs eternal!)

Inatitute: How do you narrow a request without losing the scope of what you’re trying to get? 

Spivack: Despite the many difficulties people in my book had at the state and local levels getting information, there are many people in government who actually want to help you and have a good sense of what their agency possesses that addresses your needs. Find those people, visit with them in person if possible, call them if not possible to go in person. 

Last resort, email them. But don’t assume they will answer emails unless they have met you some other way first and have an understanding from a conversation what you might want that they have.

To read the full interview, click here.

Got journalism expertise to share? Send your writing, editing, or reporting tips to The Latest editor and NPCJI Operations Manager Holly Butcher Grant at [email protected].