Local State Senator Ed McBroom (R-Waucedah Township) has unveiled Senate Bill 467. This legislation is expected to fix an issue created by an email exchange between a lobbyist and a senior advisor to Governor Gretchen Whitmer employed Greek letters, effectively masking it from electronic FOIA searches.
“My legislation would help ensure FOIA works to help hold government officials accountable by clarifying the intent of the law and the penalties for failing to do so,” said McBroom, R-Waucedah Township. “Whether this incident was the result of a coding glitch or an intentional effort to hide their statements from the public, we should all be able to agree that we need better protections in place to preserve communications in a way that doesn’t avoid honest disclosure.”
In 2021 a multi-client lobbyist, who previously worked with a Genesee County state senator, was called upon to lend his expertise to the state’s response regarding the lead water crisis in Benton Harbor. His involvement stemmed from his prior experience during Flint’s water crisis, making him a valuable asset in a challenging situation.
The lobbyist sent an email on September 29, 2021, to a Whitmer environment and energy advisor. The email, shrouded in Greek letters, bore a message that, when deciphered, said “Hot off the presses. As I warned, there are some major red flags. It seems like we are back at square one, having not learned from Flint.”
This email was brought to light during the discovery phase of a class-action lawsuit filed by Benton Harbor residents. The lawsuit centered around the Whitmer administration’s actions taken during the crisis. A key argument presented in a June court filing suggested that the use of Greek letters was a deliberate attempt to evade public records requests for government communications containing the word “Flint.”
MIRS, a Lansing-based publication specializing in state government coverage, reported that the use of Greek letters resulted from an unusual coding glitch. This glitch could manifest when messages were copied and pasted from certain Microsoft Word programs into emails.
McBroom’s bill seeks to bolster the state’s FOIA law by expanding the scope of actions subject to fines and penalties. The proposed legislation includes a provision that prohibits any government body from intentionally preparing, possessing, or retaining a public record with the purpose of evading disclosure. This includes the use of code words, phrases, symbols, foreign languages, non-English letters, or content not easily associated with the actual subject matter. Furthermore, if such records are created or stored electronically, they must be readily discoverable through automatic searches conducted in English.
McBroom said the legislation will fix an ongoing issue to the state’s weak FOIA laws.
“I began work on this bill more than four months ago, long before various groups and media started talking about this particular email. My intention has always been to fix an apparent problem so no one in the future is inspired to try to hide information this way while also bringing attention and accountability to this situation if, in fact, it was intentionally done,” he said.
