An Act to Clarify Deadlines in the Freedom of Access Act and Disclosure Provisions in the Intelligence and Investigative Record Information Act
Maine Legislature, Session 131, LD 1203
Committee: Judiciary
Sponsors: BOYER, BRAKEY, ANDREWS, HENDERSON, LEE, LIBBY, POIRIER, RECKITT, SUPICA
Amends: 1 MRSA §408-A, 1 MRSA §413, 16 MRSA §804

Legislative Document
No. 1203
H.P. 763
House of Representatives, March 14, 2023
An Act to Clarify Deadlines in the Freedom of Access Act and 
Disclosure Provisions in the Intelligence and Investigative Record 
Information Act
Reference to the Committee on Judiciary suggested and ordered printed.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative BOYER of Poland.
Cosponsored by Senator BRAKEY of Androscoggin and
Representatives: ANDREWS of Paris, HENDERSON of Rumford, LEE of Auburn, LIBBY of 
Auburn, POIRIER of Skowhegan, RECKITT of South Portland, SUPICA of Bangor.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  1 MRSA §408-A, sub-§3, as amended by PL 2015, c. 317, §1, is further 
amended to read:
3.  Acknowledgment; clarification; time estimate; cost estimate.  The agency or 
official having custody or control of a public record shall acknowledge receipt of a request 
made according to this section within 5 working days of receiving the request and may 
request clarification concerning which public record or public records are being requested.  
Within a reasonable time of receiving the request, but no later than 30 days following 
receipt of the request, the agency or official shall provide a good faith, nonbinding estimate 
of the time within which the agency or official will comply with the request, as well as a 
cost estimate as provided in subsection 9.  The agency or official shall make a good faith 
effort to fully respond to the request within the estimated time.  For purposes of this 
subsection, the date a request is received is the date a sufficient description of the public 
record is received by the agency or official at the office responsible for maintaining the 
public record.  An agency or official that receives a request for a public record that is 
maintained by that agency but is not maintained by the office that received the request shall 
forward the request to the office of the agency or official that maintains the record, without 
willful delay, and shall notify the requester that the request has been forwarded and that the 
office to which the request has been forwarded will acknowledge receipt within 5 working 
days of receiving the request.
Sec. 2.  1 MRSA §413, sub-§5 is enacted to read:
5.  Prioritization of requests.  A public access officer may give priority to a request 
for public records from a resident of this State or from a journalist acting in the journalistic 
capacity of gathering, receiving, transcribing or processing news or information for 
potential dissemination to the public.  
Sec. 3.  16 MRSA §804, sub-§3, as enacted by PL 2013, c. 267, Pt. A, §3, is 
amended to read:
3.  Constitute an invasion of privacy.  Constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal 
privacy, except when the disclosure of the record is consented to by the individual who is 
the subject of the record or, if that individual is deceased, incapacitated or a minor, by a 
person who is a family or household member of the individual.  As used in this subsection, 
"family or household member" has the same meaning as in Title 19-A, section 4102, 
subsection 6;
SUMMARY
This bill amends the Freedom of Access Act to specify that the reasonable time within 
which an agency or official having custody or control of a document has to provide a good 
faith, nonbinding estimate of the time that it will take the agency or official to comply with 
the request may not be longer than 30 days following receipt of the request.  This bill allows 
the public access officer for an entity subject to the Freedom of Access Act to give priority 
to requests for public records from residents of Maine and journalists.  This bill also amends 
the Intelligence and Investigative Record Information Act to allow the disclosure of a 
record that may constitute an unwarranted invasion of privacy if that disclosure is 
consented to by the individual who is the subject of the record or, if the individual is 
deceased, incapacitated or a minor, by a family or household member of that individual.