UO Public Records Office hiding Duck’s $450K contract for EWU beatdown 03/13/2015

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UO Public Records Office hiding Duck’s $450K contract for EWU beatdown

  03/13/2015

Last Saturday I emailed nearly identical public records requests to Eastern Washington University and the University of Oregon. I cced AAD Eric Roedl on the UO request, since he’s got these contracts:

Dear [Ms Dempsey (for EWU) or Ms Thornton for (UO)] -

This is a public records request for a copy of the contract or other agreement between EWU and The University of Oregon (or their respective athletic departments) for the EWU-UO football game that is scheduled for September 5 2015. An example of the sort of document I am requesting is at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/971644/uomatters/IAC/SDSU%20contract%202014.pdf. I would prefer to receive this by email, as a pdf. I ask for a fee waiver on the basis of public interest.

EWU sent me the contract at 11AM Monday – 3 working hours after I requested it. No charge. UO’s athletic department is going to pay Eastern Washington’s football team $450K to suffer through a Sept 5th beatdown at Autzen. (This is the NCAA, so the money goes to the coaches and AD, not the players, of course.) Full contract here:

Three hours is pretty quick turnaround, though Florida can be even quicker. UO’s Public Records Office, in comparison, stalled all week. AAD Eric Roedl never responded. This is typical for UO.

Maybe next week Lisa Thornton will send me the usual boilerplate, telling me they might have a contract, and I might have to pay to see it. Or maybe she’ll send me an estimate like this, for the Aon / Hewitt consulting reports. I wonder what Johnson Hall is hiding this time?

The University of Oregon has received your public records request for “any UO public records contracts, invoices, or deliverables related to Aon Consulting Inc/dba Hewitt Assoc, dated from 1/1/2014 to the present” on 03/03/2015, attached. The office has at least some documents responsive to your request.  By this email, the office is providing you with an estimate to respond to your requests. 

The office estimates the actual cost of responding to your request to be $591.98. Upon receipt of a check made payable to the University of Oregon for that amount, the office will proceed to locate, copy, and provide the records you have requested that are not exempt from disclosure.  Your check may be sent to the attention of Office of Public Records, 6207 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-6207.

The university has received your request for a fee waiver for these records.  The decision to waive or reduce fees is discretionary with the public body.  After considering your request below, the office does not consider that the totality of the circumstances you presented meets the standard for a fee waiver. 

Please note that if the cost of preparing the documents for you is less than the estimate, we will refund the difference.  If the cost of preparing the records for you exceeds the estimate, however, you may be charged for the difference.  Following is an outline of how costs are determined. 

The office will provide the documents electronically to avoid a copy fee of 25 cents per page.  The office also charges for the actual cost of making public records available.  The charge includes, but is not limited to, staff costs for locating, gathering, summarizing, compiling, reviewing, tailoring or redacting the public records to respond to a request.  The charge may also include the cost of time spent by an attorney in reviewing the public records, redacting material from the public records, or segregating the public records into exempt and nonexempt records. 

The cost of time for each employee is calculated by multiplying the employee’s hourly wage calculation (including benefits expenses) by the hours or portions thereof necessary to locate, gather, summarize, compile, tailor, review, redact, segregate, certify or attend the inspection of the public records requested.

Thank you for contacting us with your request. 

Sincerely,

Lisa Thornton
Office of Public Records
University of Oregon
Office of the President
6207 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-6207
541-346-6823
pubrec@uoregon.edu

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