Hi Mr. White,

I do not have enough information to determine if any of your four requests qualify for facilitated dispute resolution. Moreover, ORS 192.468 states, “Consistent with ORS 192.464 and rules adopted thereunder, the Public Records Advocate possesses sole discretion over the conduct of facilitated dispute resolution sessions.”

Facilitated dispute resolution is merely mediation. I do not have the authority to order outcomes in public records requests. As such, whether we are assisting through facilitated dispute resolution or other, less formal forms of mediation, I need to understand the parameters of a disputed request, and have the cooperation of all parties.

At the moment, I have none of these things. As mentioned previously, I am also one of two people in a state agency that received nearly 400 individual requests for assistance such as yours last year while striving to address them all in a timely matter. Please keep in mind that mediating disputed requests is only one of the forms of assistance we offer on public records matters and, as such, are engaged in those other duties too.

Therefore, we assist requesters with one disputed public records request at a time to assure equitable access to all of those seeking our services. We also require answers to our questions and agreeable interactions that permit the free flow of information.

With this in mind, are you interested in working with us along the terms I outlined? If so, with which request do you wish to begin?

On the other hand, if you find these terms unacceptable, then we will not be able to work with you further and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.

Kind regards,

Todd Albert
Public Records Advocate
Office of the Public Records Advocate
www.oregon.gov/pra