The Complainant alleged that the Town violated the APRA when it failed to timely and completely respond to his July 16, 2020 and July 17, 2020 APRA requests and failed to respond to his administrative appeal. The Town did not dispute that it failed to timely respond to the Complainant's APRA requests; therefore, we found the Town violated the APRA. We also found that the Town failed to state that it did not maintain certain requested records, which violated the APRA. The undisputed evidence also demonstrated that the Town did not respond to the Complainant's administrative appeal, which also violated the APRA. The evidence submitted to this Office indicates that the Town has now completely responded to both of Complainant's APRA requests. However, this Office concluded that the Town committed willful and knowing or, alternatively, reckless violations of the APRA. Accordingly, this Office intends to file a civil lawsuit against the Town in Superior Court seeking civil fines. VIOLATION FOUND
