---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Margaret Ann Morgan <MMORG@ago.state.ms.us>

Date: Tue, Mar 5, 2019 at 11:03 AM
Subject: 2/22 request
To: Jay Hughes <jay@yallpolitics.com>

Jay,

We are in receipt of your public records request dated February 22, 2019. In order to comply with your request,
we will need payment in advance of the following cost estimate: 6 hours of staff time at $50 per hour, 3 hours IT
staff time at $35 per hour, 4 hours of attorney time at $65 per hour, and 1.5 hours of staff time at $30 per hour,
for a total of $710.00.

As for electronic correspondence, our current system capabilities allow us to search only back to April 15, 2013.
Any searches of electronic files prior to April 15, 2013 are required to be done on an individual user basis
through a different server and would require substantial time and expense. It is unlikely that there are any emails
prior to April 15, 2013 regarding our office in Houston, Mississippi. However, if you would like for us to conduct a
search of electronic correspondence prior to April 15, 2013, please let us know, and we will provide you with a
cost estimate to conduct this search.

Portions of your request are general requests for information, which fall outside the scope of the Mississippi
Public Records Act. These information requests fail to identify records or a class of records sufficient enough to
allow our office to conduct a search and produce responsive documents. The Mississippi Public Records Act
requires you to request an 'identifiable record' or class of records. The Mississippi Ethics Commission has held
that an 'identifiable record' is not a request for information in general nor is it a request that a public entity search
each and every one of its files that ever existed for certain words. (See Public Records Opinions No. R-14-001
and R-14-034.) In order for us to fully respond to your request, you must request an identifiable record or class
of records and provide enough information to reasonably locate records responsive to your request. We invite
you to clarify your request by providing our office with a more precise and narrow description of the public
records you are seeking so that we may reasonably locate records responsive to your request.

Should you wish to proceed with the search and review, please send a check in the amount of $710.00 made
payable to the Mississippi Attorney General's Office to the address listed below with the notation that it is for
"Public Records Request - Hughes (0943)." Pursuant to Section 25-6-7(1), this fee must be collected in
advance of complying with the request. We will refund any unused funds if the work costs less than the
estimate. If the process costs more than we have estimated, we will require additional payment before releasing
the records.

If you have any questions or would like assistance in narrowing this request, please reach out to me.

Thanks,

Margaret Ann

POST OFFICE BOX 220 •JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 39205-0220

Margaret Ann Morgan

Communications Director

Office of the Mississippi Attorney General

(601)-359-2002 • mmorg@ago.state.ms.us

@Margaret_AnnM
 March 18, 2019

Margaret Ann Morgan

Public Information Officer
Office of the Attorney General
P.O. Box 220
Jackson, MS 39205-0220

HAND DELIVERED

Margaret Ann:

Pursuant to your email dated 3/5/19 (attached) regarding PRR #0943, I have attached a check for $710 as
requested.

The original request was dated 2/22/19. We consider the updated statutory completion deadline for PRR #0943 as
14 working days from your 3/5/19 correspondence, which would be 3/25/19 (one week from today). If the AGO’s
office views it’s obligation differently, please notify us in writing. We stipulate to having the email searches that we
requested date back no further than 4/15/13.

Knowing your office’s stated commitment to transparency, we object to having the records request unnecessarily
reviewed by an attorney. The scope of the request is not subject to any litigation and is purely administrative in
nature. There’s no good faith reason to expose our media outlet to that expense as it serves to (1) punitively
increase costs and (2) slow the process. Despite these objections to the estimate, we are paying the full estimated
costs in order to move this process forward expeditiously. Please do not delay any portion of completed work from
being delivered while other parts of the request may still be in process.

We would again request an interview with you or General Hood to handle some of the “general requests for
information” referenced in your email. It’s disingenuous for the Attorney General’s Office to say on one hand that
some of the information we have requested being “general” and that it falls outside the Act while on the other hand
saying that you won’t provide us the opportunity to get those questions asked and answered in the normal course
of a regular press function. One way or the other, AGO should be responsive.

Specifically, we’d ask for immediate replies to the following three datapoints referenced in our original request.

1)The number of people who work in the Houston office, part or full time, and the state expenditure on their salaries
and benefits.
2) An estimate of the number of hours per month that Attorney General Jim Hood spends in the Houston office.
3) The name of any vendors delivering services for the property since 2013 including but not limited to utility
companies, janitorial providers, office supply/equipment providers, and furniture providers.

Please email any correspondence relating to this request to editor@yallpolitics.com and jay@yallpolitics.com and
please verify that they have been received so that there’s no further miscommunication due to email transmission.

Thanks for your assistance.

Sincerely,
JACKSON NEW MEDIA, INC.

Alan Lange

Jackson New Media, Inc.

P.O. Box 55914 ● Jackson, MS 39296-5914 ● 601-914-5642