LANSING, MI— State Senator Ed McBroom has introduced a bill to punish government officials who use Greek letters to hide communications from Freedom of Information Act searches.
The Republican says he created the legislation after a lobbyist who was asked to consult on the Benton Harbor lead water problem in 2021 sent a message to a Whitmer advisor in Greek.
A June court filing argued the use of Greek letters meant the email would have been excluded from any public records request for government communications that contain the word “Flint.”
Michigan Information & Research Service claimed the email was the result of a coding glitch.
McBroom’s bill would fine and penalize anyone who used code words or phrases, symbols, a foreign language, or non-English letters to prevent a record from being disclosed in a FOIA search.
