Chief FOIA Officer’s Report

April 15, 2019

The National Indian Gaming Commission (“NIGC”) submits this report in accordance with the Department of Justice 2009 Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) Guidelines calling upon agencies to reaffirm the Federal Government’s “commitment to accountability and transparency,” and as directed in the Guidelines for 2018 Chief FOIA Officers Reports.

In FY 2018, the NIGC FOIA Office (“FO”) was re-organized and re-aligned from the Office of the General Counsel to the Division of Information Technology.  The Agency Records Officer is responsible for managing all FOIA-related matters and this position is at the assistant-secretary level or equivalent.

The integration of the FO with the IT business unit was a consequence of the recognition that the FO needed to be assured access to IT tools and that, going forward, FOIA-related needs and concerns would be included in IT decision-making.  Already this year, for example, the FO has identified significant FOIA-related deficiencies in the agency’s email search and retrieval tools and these concerns are now incorporated into IT resource planning.

During FY 2018, NIGC FOIA professionals and staff with FOIA responsibilities did not attend substantive FOIA training, however, the FO had periodic meetings with Records Liaison Officers for the purpose of establishing and disseminating more uniform agency standards for sufficient and timely document searches.

The FO is currently updating its internal training materials for FY 2019.  Its FY 2019 training goals are 1) to reach 80% of all current personnel with new updated comprehensive training; and, 2) to work with the agency’s Training Office to include FOIA training as part of new employee orientation.  

In FY 2018, the FO continued to upgrade its customer service.  As a business rule, all requesters of complex requests were contacted and consulted about their request immediately after the initial search.  These requesters were educated about the NIGC’s lines of business and record collections and were often assisted in re-formulating their requests so that they were more efficiently targeted to relevant NIGC collections.  

For any request (simple or complex) that took longer than 30 days, customers were contacted regularly during the waiting period and given updates as to the status of their request.  These communications were essential for building positive relationships with customers and reinforced customer confidence in the process.

For customers who requested expedited processing, the average time period that the NIGC took to adjudicate their request was 7 days.

In accordance with The FOIA Improvement Act of 2016, the FO notified requesters about the services provided by the agency’s FOIA Public Liaison.  In FY 2018, no requesters sought assistance from the NIGC FOIA Public Liaison.

The FO also took steps to alleviate the burden on document submitters who were burdened with the obligation to review large numbers of submitted documents.  Submitters were provided with a spreadsheet that contained hyperlinks to the submitted documents for review.  These spreadsheets provided fields for submitters to add metadata and notes for seamless collaboration with the FO.  Using this tool helped to reduce any potential misunderstandings with submitter reviewers and documented the editing process.

In January 1997, OIP encouraged agencies to include on their websites one or more dedicated FOIA pages. In January 1998, OIP issued guidance to agencies that included ten basic recommendations for agency FOIA websites.  The NIGC has reviewed this guidance and continues to strive to improve its postings.  The NIGC’s reading room can be found at: https://www.nigc.gov/utility/freedom-of-information-act .

In accordance with the Open Government Act, the FO continued to proactively publish on its website any documents that were likely to be of interest to the public, including:  gaming ordinances; enforcement actions, lands opinions; and declination letters.  These documents were published in pdf format, which is a standard format that universally accessible on any modern browser.  

Because the NIGC handles a low volume of annual requests, it is easy to identify records that have been requested three or more times.  Moreover, the NIGC’s FOIA Tracking System contains a report that lists a description of all requests and this can be consulted for easy reference.  In FY 2018, there were no instances of any request that had been requested three times and thus required to be posted.

One posting of particular significance that should be mentioned is that of NEPA related documents that were part of an NIGC gaming management contract approval.  In consultation with the Office of the General Counsel, it was recognized that these documents were likely to generate widespread interest and therefore an ideal candidate for pro-active disclosure.

The NIGC regularly reviews its FOIA web postings to ensure that they and are informative and user-friendly.  In one case it was pointed out that the FY 2018 Q4 Report link had been inadvertently dropped and this was immediately repaired.  In FY 2018, all quarterly reporting was completed in a timely manner.  The link to these quarterly reports is:  https://www.nigc.gov/commission/nigc-quarterly-foia-reports .  Additionally, the link to the NIGC’s annual reports is:  https://www.nigc.gov/commission/foia-reports .

Although the NIGC was unable to eliminate its backlog requests entirely, in FY 2018, there was considerable progress towards reducing their number.  At the start of FY 2019 there were 20 outstanding backlog requests.  Of these 20 requests, 13 were closed.  Of these 13 that were closed, one was closed because the request had been withdrawn (all others were completed as requested).  Eight of the 13 closed were among the 10 oldest.  

In FY 2018, the FO accumulated 3 additional backlogs and, therefore, the total number of backlogs at year-end totaled 10.  On balance, more than half of the NIGC’s backlog requests (55%) were closed in FY2018.  It is notable that this reduction was achieved without collaterally impacting the processing of new requests.   In fact, the average FY 2018 response time for simple requests fell from 126.3 days to 29 days (a 76% drop) and the response time for complex requests also fell from an average of 289 days to 173 (a 40% drop).  

The NIGC will continue to work on reducing the remaining backlog requests.  One of the constraints that is limiting the reduction of backlog requests is the lack of womenpower (there is a limited number of employees who have the expertise in handling complex requests) but there are already early indications that the NIGC is on track to achieve similar significant reductions in FY 2019.

			_____________________________		__________________

			Tim Osumi, 					(Date)

NIGC Chief FOIA Officer			

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