Photo By Staff Sgt. Daniel Brosam | John Marsh, 341st Communications Squadron base Freedom of Information Act and Privacy...... read more read more
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According to www.foia.gov, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) gives the public the right to request access to records from any federal agency. This allows citizens to stay in the know about their government and creates transparency and trust on both sides.
Though federal agencies are required to disclose most information requested under the FOIA, information may fall under one of nine exemptions which protects interests such as personal privacy and national security which may have parts of the information redacted, or removed.
John Marsh, 341st Communications Squadron base Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act manager, oversees all the information released and makes sure it is released in accordance with Air Force Instructions, Department of Defense guidelines and common law. Marsh also supervises the base records program, publications as well as the official mail center.
“I’m the person that processes the request,” Marsh said. “I have to contact the organization that will provide the response of records and have a completed packet within the mandated 20 days.”
A request for information is submitted online and tracked using software to store all the requests in a database.
Once the request has been received, Marsh must gather the information from various units, have it reviewed by numerous agencies and commanders and sent to the requester within 20 days. However, circumstances allow for an extra 10 days if needed.
“We have to be able to process the records, redact any information, have it reviewed by legal and signed by the wing commander by the 20th day,” Marsh said. “However, we have the authority to make it a simple or complex request if it is an enormous amount of information.”
Marsh said the largest request he has ever received was nearly 1,000 pages of information in 2014, all of which had to be read line by line to determine if the content was releasable.
Documents may contain secret or classified information with other general knowledge available to the public.
In this type of scenario, the non-releasable information will be covered with a black box, completely voiding it and making it unreadable. The box will contain an exemption code, notifying the requester to why the information was redacted.
Terry Woodard, 341st CS director of operations, ensures the mission is executed to the highest standard every day.
“This is one of those sections you don’t have to be concerned about,” Woodard said. “I’ve been (Marsh’s) supervisor since he arrived and he is a fantastic worker. Along with the guys that work for him, this is one of those shops that know their job and takes care of it.”
Woodard said he has good faith in his team in completing the mission and providing accurate information to the public when requested.
| Date Taken: | 07.26.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 07.29.2016 17:32 |
| Story ID: | 205526 |
| Location: | MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, MT, US |
| Web Views: | 37 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, FOIA creates transparency, by SSgt Daniel Brosam, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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