“Tell me how the search was done.”
He answers the Department of Environmental Quality’s letter of November 2, 2026, and writes, “Tell me how the search was done.”
Public Records Officer,
On November 2, 2026, you wrote: “we were not able to locate any 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 The Department of State Lands ran it in Microsoft Purview across every current and former employee’s mailbox the week after the request.7
If you take the position that the records of the search are not part of my request, I will learn something from that about how to make a request to you: wait until you confirm the search was run, then make a second public records request for its records. I have already built the system that does that. You are looking at it. Each second request it sends is one more for you to answer.
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, November 2, 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
- DSL, response to the same request, November 2, 2026