Town of Ponoka administration no longer needs to respond Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) requests related to 38 Street controversy.
The decision was made by Jill Clayton, information and privacy commissioner, and made public on Friday, Aug. 28, referring to 14 specific information requests made by four individuals on that particular matter.
Although the names of the individuals in question were not provided, Bill Kuncio confirmed he and Nick Kohlman are two of the four mentioned in the privacy commissioner’s findings. Kohlman requested 14 pieces of information from town administration on Aug. 27, 2014.
On Sept. 24, 2014, then acting CAO Betty Quinlan requested that Clayton authorize the town to disregard the requests, and any further requests on 38 Street.
Current CAO Rachel Kunz told council of Clayton’s letter Tuesday, Aug. 25 during a committee of the whole meeting. “Our submission was that the answer was not possible or the answer was given,” said Kunz.
In her findings, Clayton said the town responded to three requests from Kohlman, a fourth request was deemed a repetitive question once reworded and the 10 other requests were seen as already provided by the town.
“I am granting the Town’s application and authorizing the Town to disregard the remaining ten of the Respondents’ fourteen access requests contained in the August 25, 2014 letter,” explained Clayton.
“I am also granting the Town’s application and authorizing the Town to disregard any further requests relating to the ‘issues at hand’ from the respondents, which is any issue about the 38th Street Local Improvement,” she added.
The three issues that were addressed by the town were documents showing the Descon Engineering costs for 2007 and the total amount of payments for the project, documentation on the frontage of one property — which was not provided in the report — and cost of legal expenses for the project, which included appeals and FOIP requests.
As for the rest, Clayton stated most of the requests are repetitious and of a systematic nature. She added that the first respondent, Kohlman, had a goal to establish the truth on whether the town engaged in wrongdoing.
She offered in the report that in 2002 the privacy commissioner at the time decided that was an improper use of the FOIP Act and she agreed.
Clayton concluded by saying the town can disregard future applications from the respondents, or anyone acting on their behalf.
Kuncio confirmed after this decision that he and Kohlman have little to no options left regarding 38 Street.