The Complainant alleged the Town violated the APRA by: (1) failing to timely respond to the request; (2) failing to respond to the request for text messages; and (3) withholding responsive documents pursuant to the attorney-client relationship exemption. The Town did not dispute that it failed to completely respond to the Complainant's request within the time period set by the APRA. It is also undisputed that the Town did not respond to the request for text messages either by providing responsive records or indicating that no responsive records exist. Therefore, we concluded that the Town violated the APRA in connection with allegations (1) and (2). Next, the Town did not specifically identify any "good cause" why the client/attorney relationship exemption should not be deemed waived in light of its failure to timely cite an exemption in a written response to the request. Additionally, the Town indicated that certain withheld records are actually not subject to the cited exemption. Accordingly, we found the Town also violated the APRA in connection with allegation (3) by improperly withholding the responsive emails that it now indicates are not exempt and by withholding emails without timely asserting an exemption in writing in accordance with the APRA. Although injunctive relief may be appropriate, we instructed the Town to produce the non-exempt documents and provide a supplemental submission as described in the finding for further review by this Office. VIOLATION FOUND
