MO-4593

This order resolves two appeals regarding access to records related to certain baseball associations and the Town of Grimsby (the town), under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the Act). The town issued a fee estimate to the requester, to process the request. The town decided to partially disclose some information without citing any sections of the Act. A party whose interests could be affected by disclosure (the affected party) appealed the town’s decision to disclose some emails (or parts of emails) involving that party. The requester also appealed the town’s decision, seeking access to the information withheld, and disputing the town’s fee estimate, its decision not to waive the fee, and the reasonableness of its search.
In this order, the adjudicator allows the affected party’s appeal and orders the town to withhold the three emails remaining at issue, in full, because the emails contain personal information that cannot be disclosed (under the discretionary personal privacy exemption at section 38(b) of the Act).
The adjudicator also allows the requester’s appeal, in part. She finds that all personal information in the records cannot be disclosed (under section 38(b) or the mandatory personal privacy exemption at section 14(1), whichever applies). However, the adjudicator does not agree that the information in three records cannot be disclosed on the basis of the exemption for third party information [section 10(1)] and orders the town to disclose those records to the requester. The adjudicator does not uphold the town’s fee (and only allows $10 of it) but upholds the town’s decision not to waive the fee. The adjudicator also upholds the town’s search for responsive records as reasonable.