“I have not narrowed it.”
He answers the Oregon Youth Authority’s letter of November 2, 2026, and writes, “I have not narrowed it.”
Public Records Officer,
On November 2, 2026, you wrote: “It appears you may desire to narrow the scope of your original request which included multiple communication mediums to only email.”1 I have not narrowed it. My reply said the email search is one search: two addresses, five terms, one date range.2 My request of October 31, 2026 stands as written: email, Teams chat and channel messages, text messages, and voicemail.3
You wrote that OYA searches “by the party name or the position of the OYA employee.” OYA’s email is in the state’s Microsoft 365 system, managed by Enterprise Information Services since the state’s own email servers were shut down on November 21, 2024.4 Its search runs across every mailbox by sender, recipient, and terms.5
You asked whether my request is made under the Public Records Law. Its first sentence says so: “This email is a public records request under ORS 192.314.”3
You asked five questions about my fee waiver. My request answers each of them: who I am and where the records will be published; the purpose, to make the practice of the law public; the character of the information; that no public record shows it now; and my ability to publish it, at no charge and with no commercial interest.3 The statute’s test is whether making the record available “primarily benefits the general public” [ORS 192.324(5)]. It asks for no questionnaire.
My request is part of Inquiry 1, put to every state agency: “Is the public relations office of Oregon State Police a back channel for agencies to dump their problems?” That question is the public interest. A member of the public who writes to a state agency is speaking and petitioning the government. When the agency sends that person to the state police press office, police power is turned on speech. On March 3, 2026, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department forwarded a citizen’s public archive to the captain of that office, alleging no crime and no threat. The next day, the captain ordered detectives to conduct a “threat assessment.”3 Whether other agencies do the same concerns every Oregonian who writes to them. My request excludes every record concerning me. It cannot serve any interest of mine: no record about me, nothing for any claim or proceeding of mine. What it produces shows only how agencies treat the public, so the public is the only one it benefits. Every answer is published in full, free to read, with no commercial use, beside the answers of 124 other public bodies. That answers all five of your questions. Every letter between OYA and me on this request is published in your agency’s panel.
Run the search across every channel my request names, and decide my fee waiver on what it says. Follow the statute [ORS 192.324(5)].
Thank you for your contribution to the record.
