In the recent PAC Opinion 19-007, the PAC found a public body in violation of FOIA when it refused to hand over manganese reports of a business entity in response to a FOIA request.
The FOIA request came in response to a city ordinance requiring all manganese-bearing materials operators provide the city with quarterly reports concerning the amount of material being handled at their facilities. The city refused to hand over the manganese reports of the private entity, claiming that the reports contain sensitive business information that fell under section 7(1)(g) of FOIA’s exemption for proprietary commercial information.
The PAC rejected the city’s argument that the disclosure of the manganese reports was proprietary and confidential, stating that the city failed to provide any evidence that the disclosure of the information would cause competitive harm to the private business entity. The PAC reasoned that no substantive business insights would result from the disclosure of the reports, which contain, among other things, how the materials are transported in and out of the facility, its density and percentage of manganese, and the amounts shipped, received, and stored. Because the city failed to articulate specific facts demonstrating the competitive harm to the private entity that would result from disclosing the limited information reports, the PAC ordered the city to comply immediately with the FOIA request for the manganese reports.
Post Authored by Rain Montero & Julie Tappendorf