This week's FOIA Friday looks at trees, and the difference that wholesale publication of municipal data can make when cities need to make decisions about street tree maintenance. 

New Canaan, Conn., like Ann Arbor, is a town full of trees, including trees that sometimes need to be trimmed or cut down. Whenever a tree is cut down, someone wonders who made the decision and why, and if the answer is not easy to find, you may find a FOIA request not far behind.

Also in this week's edition, some FOIA requests in progress from AnnArbor.com education reporter David Jesse.

If you're not familiar with this series, the first post gives a good introduction.

Tree maintanance

The situations in Ann Arbor and in New Canaan about tree removal run in parallel. In both cases, trees were removed from the public right of way; in both cases, a set of concerned citizens asked why, and looked for evidence that the city was working according to a plan and not just responding arbitrarily to complaints.

In Ann Arbor, unwelcome street tree removals near Virginia Park led to the formation of the Ann Arbor Tree Conservancy, which has worked with neighborhoods to replant trees on city rights of way. The city has published a complete tree inventory of all municipal trees, showing where they are, what condition they are in, and what recommended routine maintenance is suggested. Included in this tree inventory is a spreadsheet with every tree on every street - very useful if you are hunting for a gingko or an apple tree to admire or snack from.

In New Canaan, though, things are not so simple. Faced with frustration over what they viewed as the arbitrary removal of street trees near their homes, a group of residents fought back by trying to determine how the city Tree Warden made its decisions. The New Canaan Advertiser writes in a Nov. 25 story:

"The residents filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in October to view all “non-exempt public records” on Tree Warden John Howe’s work computer, along with any tree-related content from other town databases, dating back to the beginning of 2007."

A request for someone's entire computer is likely to trigger a reaction from government either that the request is "beyond the pale of reasonableness" (the reaction of a New Caanan selectman), or similar terms used in Michigan cases like "absurdly overbroad."  It's on part with the Mackinac Center's request for seven years worth of Michigan State Police homeland security spending, to which the reply was that the FOIA request would cost just shy of $7 million. Very broad, sweeping requests for all records are unlikely to get a satisfactory response.

The residents opposed to the tree clearing cite the need for comprehensive tree management, as reported in the New Canaan News Review:

"John Burns, a resident of West Road who opposes the removal of trees, said it is very likely that the neighbors will appeal. He and his neighbors hope an appeal will result in the establishment of a tree management program in New Canaan, he said. "This is the crux of our appeal and the town's overwhelming problem concerning our trees: New Canaan has no tree management program -- its public works department simply reacts to complaints," Christopher wrote to the New Canaan News in an e-mail. "The true risk to public safety and to the beauty of our community lies in our town leadership's failure to take the Office of Tree Warden seriously and fund a meaningful tree management program as most other nearby communities did 20 years ago," he wrote. "So now we're paying for it."

The results of Ann Arbor's tree inventory were first released via a FOIA request, and then subsequently published on the city web site. New Canaan residents would be well advised to see how publication of the health and the location of about 50,000 street and park trees affects how decisions are made about tree maintenance, removal, and planting.

FOIA requests underway at AnnArbor.com for school information

Each week I write about some FOIA requests underway at AnnArbor.com. This week I spoke with education reporter David Jesse, who relayed some work in progress. He's following up on the budget issues associated with defeat of the school millage in November, and as a part of that he has asked for every teacher union contract in the county, plus a building by building breakdown of school enrollment, school capacity and school budgets in Ann Arbor. Look for that information to be incorporated into stories as it arrives from the districts.

Edward Vielmetti writes the FOIA Friday column for AnnArbor.com. You can reach him by telephone at 734-330-2465 or by email at edwardvielmetti@annarbor.com.