• You have the right to request to inspect or receive copies of public records.
• You have the right to request that any charges for the requested records be estimated in advance.
• If you believe that your FOIA rights have been violated, you may file a petition in district or circuit court to compel compliance with FOIA.
• No provision of FOIA shall be construed to afford any rights to any person (i) incarcerated in a state, local or federal correctional facility, whether or not such facility is (a) located in the Commonwealth or (b) operated pursuant to the Corrections Private Management Act (§ 53.1-261 et seq.) or (ii) civilly committed pursuant to the Sexually Violent Predators Act (§ 37.2-900 et seq.). However, this restriction shall not be construed to prevent such person from exercising their constitutionally protected rights, including, but not limited to, their right to call for evidence in their favor in a criminal prosecution.

A request must identify the records you are seeking with “reasonable specificity.” This is a common-sense standard. It does not refer to or limit the volume or number of records being requested. Instead, it requires enough specificity that NRHA can identify and locate the records being sought.

A request must ask for existing records or documents. FOIA gives a right to inspect or copy records. It does not apply to a situation where you are asking general questions about the work of NRHA, nor does it require NRHA to create a record that does not exist. However, NRHA may summarize information under such terms and conditions as agreed to between the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority and the requester.

A requestor may choose to receive electronic records in any format used by Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority in the regular course of business. For example, if requesting records maintained in an Excel database, you may elect to receive those records electronically, via e-mail, a computer disk, or receive a printed copy of those records.

If NRHA has questions about a request, please cooperate with staff’s efforts to clarify the type of records being sought, or to attempt to reach a reasonable agreement about a response to a large request. NRHA may need to discuss a request with the requestor for clarity.

We can provide the records requested in entirety.

We withhold all the records requested, because all the records are subject to a specific statutory exemption. (Of note, if all the records are being withheld, we must send a response in writing. That writing must identify the volume and subject matter of the records being withheld and state the specific section of the Code of Virginia that allows us to withhold the records.)

We provide some of the records requested but withhold other records. (Of note, we cannot withhold an entire record if only a portion of it is subject to an exemption. In that instance, we may redact the portion of the record that may be withheld and must provide the requestor with the remainder of the record. We must provide a written response stating the specific section of the Code of Virginia that allows portions of the requested records to be withheld.)

We inform in writing that the requested records cannot be found or do not exist. However, if we know that another public body has the requested records, we must include contact information for the other public body in our response.

NRHA cannot respond to your request within the five-day period, and will state this in writing, explaining the conditions that make the response unattainable. This allows the Authority seven additional working days to respond to the request. This amounts to a total of 12 working days to respond.

FOIA allows NRHA to charge for costs associated with responding to FOIA requests. This can include staff time spent searching for documents, copying costs, etc. It will not include general overhead costs. Requestors can request an estimate in advance.

If NRHA estimates that it will cost more than $200 to respond to a request, we may require a deposit, not to exceed the amount of the estimate, before proceeding with your request. The five days that NRHA has to respond to your request does not include the time between when we ask for a deposit and when you respond.

If a requestor has a monetary balance from a previous FOIA request that is more than 30 days delinquent, NRHA may require payment of the past-due bill before responding to a new FOIA request.

• Personnel records (§ 2.2-3705.1 (1) of the Code of Virginia)
• Records subject to attorney-client privilege (§ 2.2-3705.1 (2)) or attorney work product (§ 2.2-3705.1 (3))
• Vendor proprietary information (§ 2.2-3705.1 (6))
• Records relating to the negotiation and award of a contract, prior to a contract being awarded (§ 2.2-3705.1 (12))