Here’s a $79,000 FOIA Bill from the City of McKinney, Texas
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16
I read this and the comments and I would imagine its a pretty big undertaking to obtain, review, redact and transmit 10 years worth of emails. I think this article, like most things on this website, is a little sensationalized to support whatever flavor of the day agenda you’re pushing.
110
I am a programmer, and I can tell you — no, it is not a “big undertaking”. On any conceivable system presently in use it can be done in several days, a week at most. The 2,231 hour figure just to write a script is so absurdly inflated, it could only be cited by someone who has absolutely no clue about software, and thus does not realize how stupid he sounds.
21
Sssshhhhhh. You're not suppose to tell non-programmers these things haha.
43
*Divides engineer’s estimates by 3
-Project Manager
13
Yeah, maybe those emails are not even on computers. Maybe 10 years ago they didn’t even have computers to send email on....oh wait.
147
2,231 hours to create a search script. Where do I submit my resume to the city of McKinney? I could EASILY get that done in 2,000 hours tops.
28
Even better...2000 hours basically equates 1 man year of work, so you know it's BS.
19
It’s exactly 248 * 9. There are 248 working days in Texas this year.
45
I can see the DB admin now just sitting there listening to the request “Oh you need me to find some emails huh?... Yea that’ll take me.... about..... a year? yea a year I’ll have them for sure by then. *goes back to posting on reddit*
18
<chortle> Government workers pulling off 9 hour workdays. That just confirms its BS.
109
There may be a less costly method of obtaining the information you seek.
Have you considered, for example, hiring the entire Cirque du Soleil troupe and transporting them to McKinney via first-class rickshaw, where, employing the talents of Mr. David Copperfield, at your expense, they could miniaturize and teleport into our computer network, enabling them to obtain the necessary information with which to pantomime the email contents to you upon their deliverance back to New York, after a three-week recuperation at Canyon Ranch?
8
42.
1
Guffaw!
1
*slowclap*
7
So? Shut up and offer to have Gawker pay it and do the story and profit.
Isn’t that how this all works? Or should the taxpayer support Gawker’s business model?
I appreciate that your trying to break a story but this part of it is Gawker’s problem and not indicative of anything or anyway the state is trying to keep the info from you.
If you offer to have Gawker pay the costs and THEN they keep the info from you or make excuses, THAT’S a story.
119
You response is so dumb. It is obvious to everyone here but the you that the inflated cost was created to deter people from following through on their request. That is a story.
6
I disagree. The story is if they STILL try to deny the request AFTER being offered payment.
I agree the cost is meant to deter. But since Gawker and the other media outlets interested in the story could pay or even group together to pay if they really wanted to, the story should be that the cost was meant as a deterrent but Gawker will be undeterred or even take advantage of finding a third-party to use as the letter to them suggest.
That, and the better part of a decade worth of material. I’m calling it at about 70/30 split.
8
From the phrasing of the letter, it looks like they asked for too much information at once. Taking people off of their duties, specifically and probably this one records supervisor and perhaps one to two more employees, and moving them to this project would be a considerable expense.
All they’re asking is that you reduce your request to a small amount of information. In the letter it even suggests a time frame. Why is this news? I get it’s hilarious but that doesn’t make it news.
