The Mackinac Center submitted a FOIA request to the city of Warren that asked for the salaries and names of every city employee. The city responded to the request with the estimated costs, but said it would omit employees' names. It failed to cite a reason for the exemption, a requirement of Michigan's FOIA law.
On Jan. 7, 2021, the Mackinac Center submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the city of Warren. In the FOIA request, the Center asked for the salary information for every city employee in 2019 and 2020. The city responded by taking a 10-day extension. Four days after the initial request was filed, the Center amended the request to also include the names of the employees. On Jan. 29, the city responded to the request with estimated costs but did not provide a time frame for how long it would take to produce the records.
On Feb. 2, the city released the requested salary information, but omitted the names of the employees. The city claimed the names of employees were exempt from disclosure, but did not cite a reason for such an exemption, which is required by law.
Following this, the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation filed suit.
