Opinion ID: 2326714
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Executive/Deliberative Process Privilege

Text: The term executive privilege, used by the University to justify its redaction of the forecasted final cost number on the AEC Reports, is a broad and ill-defined term that encompasses a number of more specific privileges. It reaches public attention most dramatically when invoked to shield records made in connection with the deliberative decision-making process used by chief or high Executive officials  Presidents, Governors, and their immediate advisors  and, as both the Supreme Court and this Court have pointed out, when applied in that context, the deliberative process privilege subsumed within that term has its roots in the Constitutional doctrine of separation of powers. See United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 94 S.Ct. 3090, 41 L.Ed.2d 1039 (1974); Cheney v. U.S. District Court, ___ U.S. ___, 124 S.Ct. 2576, 159 L.Ed.2d 459 (2004); and Hamilton v. Verdow, supra, 287 Md. 544, 553, n. 3, 414 A.2d 914, 920 n. 3. The term executive privilege has also been used as the umbrella for shielding diplomatic, military, and security-laden secrets that may not involve those officials. It is those kinds of executive privilege that are encompassed within SG § 10-615(1)  the Constitutionally-based privilege that, when invoked, must be given the most serious attention and, when properly invoked by the person holding the privilege, require the custodian to deny inspection. It is, after all, not unusual for the physical custodian of the record to be someone other than the person holding the privilege, and it cannot have been the legislative intent  even if the legislature were competent to do it  to permit the custodian to waive or ignore another's Constitutionally based privilege. We are not dealing here with that form of executive privilege. The records at issue do not contain any diplomatic, military, or security secrets and do not involve the deliberative process of the President or Governor. They were prepared by John Mitchell, the Stamp project manager who worked in the University's Department of Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC). Mr. Mitchell prepared the reports for his immediate supervisor, Carlo Colella, the Director of AEC. Colella, in turn, reported to J. Frank Brewer, Associate Vice President for Facilities Management, who reported to another Associate Vice President. That Associate Vice President reported to John D. Porcari, Vice President of UMCP. Mr. Porcari reported to UMCP President C. Daniel Mote, Jr., who reported to Donald N. Langenberg, Chancellor of the University, who reported to the Board of Regents of the University. Mr. Colella claimed, in an affidavit, that he used the total forecasted cost figure supplied by Mr. Mitchell to make a number of different decisions regarding the projects, including decisions about the amount of resources (financial and human) to commit to each project, whether or not additional funding should be requested for the project from the University Board of Regents, and about the likely value of outstanding claims which are pending from contractors. It is evident that Mr. Colella's decision-making process, which was the sole basis for the asserted privilege, was seven rungs down in the chain of command and responsibility within one State agency. There is nothing in the record before us to indicate that Colella had authority, on his own, to make any decisions regarding additional funding or other resources or regarding the payment of disputed claims; nor is there anything in the record to indicate that the AEC Reports that Mitchell prepared for Colella's benefit were used, or even seen, by anyone up the line for their decision-making. The Constitutional underpinning of any executive/deliberative process privilege on Mr. Colella's part, if it exists at all, is exceedingly remote and tenuous. We find no basis, therefore, for a mandatory denial under SG § 10-615(1). What is really at issue here is the broader deliberative process privilege that arose from the common law, from rules of evidence, and mostly from rules governing discovery in civil judicial proceedings  a privilege that, with the advent of disclosure statutes, was incorporated into exemption provisions like SG § 10-618(b) and 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(5), to protect from legislatively mandated disclosure interagency or intra-agency memoranda or letters that would not be available by law to a private party in litigation with the unit. See EPA v. Mink, 410 U.S. 73, 93 S.Ct. 827, 35 L.Ed.2d 119 (1973); NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 421 U.S. 132, 148-49, 95 S.Ct. 1504, 1515-16, 44 L.Ed.2d 29, 46-47 (1975); FTC v. Grolier, 462 U.S. 19, 103 S.Ct. 2209, 76 L.Ed.2d 387 (1983); Cranford v. Montgomery County, supra, 300 Md. 759, 481 A.2d 221. See, however, Federal Open Market Committee v. Merrill, 443 U.S. 340, 354-55, 99 S.Ct. 2800, 2809, 61 L.Ed.2d 587, 599-600 (1979), making clear that § 552(b)(5) does not necessarily incorporate every privilege known to civil discovery. The three specific issues, in terms of that aspect of the deliberative process privilege, are (1) whether the final cost number that was redacted from the AEC Reports is the kind of information that constitutes deliberative process material, to which an exemption under SG § 10-618(b) would apply, (2) if so, whether the privilege applies to someone like Mr. Colella  the head of a sub-agency whose own ability to act on the information in any effective way has not been established, and (3) if it does, whether Mr. Colella effectively invoked the privilege. Although we have some question as to issues (2) and (3), we need not address them, as we shall answer question (1) in the negative. The permissive denial allowed by SG § 10-618(b) applies to interagency or intra-agency letters or memoranda that would not be available by law to a private party in litigation with the unit. Stromberg does not contest that the redacted information in the AEC Reports was part of an interagency or intra-agency memorandum from Mitchell to Colella. The question is whether that information would be available to a private party in litigation with the University. In that regard, we may look not only at our prior cases, but also Federal cases construing the FOIA analog, 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(5), from which § 10-618(b) was derived. See Cranford, supra, 300 Md. 759, 772-74, 481 A.2d 221, 227-29. In EPA v. Mink, supra, 410 U.S. at 86-87, 93 S.Ct. at 835-36, 35 L.Ed.2d at 132, the Supreme Court, quoting in part from Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. v. United States, 141 Ct.Cl. 38, 157 F.Supp. 939, 946 (1958), concluded that the intent behind § 552(b)(5), was to incorporate generally the recognized rule that `confidential intra-agency advisory opinions ... are privileged from inspection,' and that the public policy behind that privilege was the policy of open, frank discussion between subordinate and chief concerning administrative action. As further explicated in NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co. supra, 421 U.S. 132, 149, 95 S.Ct. 1504, 1515-16, 44 L.Ed.2d 29, 46-47, § 552(b)(5) protects only (1) those confidential advisory opinions, disclosure of which would be injurious to the consultative functions of government, and (2) attorney-client and attorney work product privileges generally available to all litigants, quoting again from Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. supra, 157 F.Supp. at 946. The focus, said the NLRB Court, is on documents reflecting advisory opinions, recommendations and deliberations comprising part of a process by which governmental decisions and policies are formulated. NLRB, 421 U.S. at 150, 95 S.Ct. at 1516, 44 L.Ed.2d at 47. Because the focus is on the decision-making process, the Federal courts have construed § 552(b)(5) as protecting only pre-decisional communications, not those made after the decision is made. The NLRB Court explained that, although [t]he quality of a particular agency decision will clearly be affected by the communications received ... prior to the time the decision is made ... it is difficult to see how the quality of a decision will be affected by communications with respect to the decision occurring after the decision is finally reached. Id. at 151, 95 S.Ct. at 1516-17, 44 L.Ed.2d at 47. Thus, to shield a record under § 552(b)(5), the agency ordinarily must establish that the record is both pre-decisional and deliberative. See Hopkins v. U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Dev., 929 F.2d 81, 84 (2nd Cir.1991); Ann K, Wooster, What are interagency or intra-agency memorandums or letters exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USCA § 552(b)(5), 168 ALR Fed 143, 192 (2001). The NLRB Court cautioned, however, that the line between pre-decisional and post-decisional documents may not always be a bright one  that decision-making is often a continuing process and that the privilege does not turn on the ability of the agency to identify a specific decision to which the memorandum relates. Id. at 151-52, n. 18 and 19, 95 S.Ct. at 1517, 44 L.Ed.2d at 48. Given the purpose of the AEC Reports, as explained in Mr. Colella's affidavit, there can be little doubt that the reports, and especially the total forecasted cost of the project, is pre-decisional in nature. The function of the reports, and of the forecasted total cost, is to allow the University to monitor the progress of the project, to determine, as the affidavit states, whether additional funding or resources will be necessary and should be requested. The question is whether that number is deliberative in nature. In that regard, both the Supreme Court, with respect to FOIA, and this Court, with respect to PIA, have drawn a general distinction between purely factual data and deliberative opinions, noting, however, that the distinction is not always a clear one and is not rigid. In EPA v. Mink, supra, 410 U.S. at 87-88, 93 S.Ct. at 836, 35 L.Ed.2d at 132, the Court observed that memoranda consisting only of compiled factual material or purely factual material contained in deliberative memoranda and severable from its context would generally be available for discovery by private parties in litigation with the Government. We noted in Hamilton v. Verdow, supra, 287 Md. at 564-65, 414 A.2d at 926, however, that material cannot always be neatly separated into fact-finding and decision-making categories, and that some factual material is entitled to a degree of protection under the privilege, although not to the same extent as opinions and recommendations, referencing, as examples, facts obtained upon promises or understandings of confidentiality, investigative facts underlying and intertwined with opinions and advice, and facts the disclosure of which would impinge on the deliberative process. The number is largely factual in nature. Indeed, in his affidavit, Mr. Colella acknowledged that [t]he AEC Monthly Reports consist predominantly of factual information on each project, including current and historical funding information, current and historical budget figures, expenditures for the project, and information regarding the project's schedule. That information is objectively ascertainable and documented, and is not at all deliberative in nature. As Mr. Colella's affidavit indicates, the number also incorporates Mr. Mitchell's estimates, predictions, or evaluations and, to that extent, constitutes Mitchell's views as to the validity or value of pending or possible claims or the course of further construction. That, indeed, is the basis for the University's claim of privilege. If we were dealing with any clear articulation of those views  if, in his report, Mr. Mitchell set forth his analysis of pending or possible claims, or what remained to be done, or the extent to which further construction would likely occur on schedule, or whether additional funding was necessary or should be sought, or whether the project should be scaled back, enhanced, or changed in some material way  we might well regard that information as deliberative and consultative in nature. If the deliberative aspects could be separated from the purely factual aspects, they might be subject to shielding. The one aggregate number that allegedly incorporates but does not identify or segregate Mr. Mitchell's consultative views does not have that status, however. It is impossible to tell from that number what Mr. Mitchell's views are with respect to any particular claim, much less whether the project should be altered or additional funding should be sought. The redacted number does not, therefore, constitute a memorandum that would not be available to a private party in litigation with the University and, accordingly, is not subject to shielding under the deliberative process privilege aspect of SG § 10-618(b). Compare Hopkins v. U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Dev., supra, 929 F.2d 81, 85 (staff reports containing inspectors' professional opinions on progress and quality of construction work and recommendations to higher officials that various agency actions should be taken may be protected by § 552(b)(5); case remanded to determine whether factual and privileged contents were inextricably intertwined); and Jowett, Inc. v. Department of Navy, 729 F.Supp. 871 (D.D.C.1989) (report of auditors hired to evaluate applicant's claim and containing auditor's recommendations and opinions regarding aspects of the claim shielded under § 552(b)(5)).