“Tell me how the search was done.”
He answers the agency’s letter of October 27, 2026, and writes, “Tell me how the search was done.”
Public Records Officer,
On October 27, 2026, you wrote: “To my knowledge the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries does not have records responsive to your request.”1
You did not say which system was searched, which terms were used, who ran it, or how many results came back. My request asks for each of those.2 Other agencies answered the same request and said how. DCBS ran it as one query.3 DOR’s network engineer ran it the day after the request.4 The Columbia River Gorge Commission ran it and had 0 results the next day.5 ODOT priced it, across every mailbox for three years, at one hour.6
I have asked the Attorney General to make an agency describe its search. On July 29, 2026, the Attorney General declined to order OSP to make statements about “the scope of its records searches”: “these requests exceed the scope of the Attorney General’s authority under the Public Records Law.”7 On August 4, 2026, when I asked that DAS describe its search, the Attorney General wrote: “The Public Records Law does not obligate DAS to address these issues or authorize the Attorney General to order such a response.”8 No one checks.
Tell me how the search was done. If none was run, run it. Follow the statute [ORS 192.329(1)].
Thank you for your contribution to the record.
- Your letter, October 27, 2026
- My request, October 27, 2026
- DCBS, response to the same request, October 30, 2026
- DOR, response to the same request, October 29, 2026
- Columbia River Gorge Commission, response to the same request, October 29, 2026
- ODOT, estimate on the same request, October 30, 2026
- Attorney General, order on my petition concerning OSP, July 29, 2026
- Attorney General, order on my petition concerning DAS, August 4, 2026