Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Michigan Works and the Call Center

It turns out that quasi governmental organizations receiving the bulk
of their funding from the State of Michigan are subject to FOIA
requests. Since we cannot require Global Response North to provide any
information about pay rates, hours worked, or operations, the only way
to legally get that sort of information is through a FOIA to the
organization, in this case Michigan Works, that provides the call
center with employees.

What follows is the FOIA request I sent to Michigan Works in Caspian
recently. The date shown is the date of mailing so they have some time
remaining to get their answer to me.

Despite the fact that the Iron County Economic Development Corporation
has caused glowing reports about the Call Center to be published we've
actually had no way to audit those claims till now. I thought that the
last 10 requests should give us some pretty good insight into what's
going on there.

====================================================================-
FROM:
William J. Vajk
US2 Highway
Iron River MI 49935
24 July 2008


Subj: FOIA

TO:
Michigan Works Service Center
237 East Caspian Avenue
Caspian MI 49915

Please provide copies of the most recent 10 requests for new employees
submitted by the business locally known as Global Response North,
whether under that name or any other. The information must include
wage offered, promised hours per week or other period, and indicate if
a benefits package is included or not.


Sincerely,

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The question might be 'Is Michigan Works a governmental agency that would com under the FOIA?'

Bill Vajk said...

Please see:

http://www.cityofmarshall.com/reference/refdocs/608-mcl-act-442-of-1976.pdf

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
Act 442 of 1976

15.232 Definitions.

(d) “Public body” means any of the following:

(iv) Any other body which is created by state or local authority or which is primarily funded by or through
state or local authority.

The answer is that Michigan Works is subject to FOIA requests. Initially I had thought otherwise, but a little research solved the question.

Thank you for visiting, and for asking the question.

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