Public Records & FOAA Requests

Welcome to the City of Biddeford’s Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) page; often referred to as the ‘right to know’. You will find on this page information about FOAA, a suggested form in order to more efficiently handle your request as well as a link to all public FOAA responses since February of 2016.

City of Biddeford FOAA Request Policies

The City posts all public FOAA requests and their responses on the City website so that all members of the public will benefit from any requests. This practice also saves costs for both the person requesting the information as well as the City. You will be contacted to let you know when the information has been posted. If your request has been denied, you will be notified in writing of the denial and reason for the denial. Denials may be appealed to the Maine Superior Court. 

Requests for copies of documents will be subject to a fee of $0.10 per page for a standard 8 1/2 inches by 11 inches black and white copy of a record.

If your request is expected to exceed two hours of staff time in preparing a response, a fee of $15 per hour will be billed after the first two hours of staff time per request. This fee is collected to cover the actual cost of searching for, retrieving and compiling the requested public record. Compiling the public record includes reviewing and redacting confidential information. A deposit for the estimated time in excess of two hours will be required. Any unused funds will be refunded. If the time frame exceeds the estimate, the information will not be released until the balance of the payment is received by the City.

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For more information about Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, visit Maine.gov.

Open Government

The City of Biddeford maintains a record of open and closed Freedom of Access Act requests. "Open" requests refer to requests that have been received and are under review. "Closed" requests are archived requests along with the City’s response. Follow the link below to review these items. 

You might find it uncommon that a community publicly posts all of the FOAA requests. It is uncommon because the law does not require a community to do so. However, the City made the decision to post all requests for the following reasons:

  1. The City assumes that if one person requested the information it is likely that others might also be interested. Hence, a public posting allows that opportunity.
  2. There is a financial savings by posting on the City website for both the person requesting the information as well as the city.
  3. The City believes there is a benefit in providing factual responses to any questions or requests that are made.
  4. There may be citizens that are interested in knowing what requests are coming in and who is making them.
  5. Finally, there is staff time that is involved with each request. Under the law, the first hour of time to produce the documents is at no charge to the person making the request. It is safe to assume that for each request, there is a minimum of one to two hours of staff time spent preparing each response. In many cases, the City Attorney is also involved.

Posting Process for Requests

Until most recently, this process of posting the requests was met with few issues. However, recent requests have required the City to revisit the practice. Hence, the City will use its discretion in the posting process. The City will apply the following reasonable guidelines; the application of which is based on the above goals.

  1. Unprofessional, vulgar or other inappropriate words in a request will not be included. Comments that are derogatory towards any person(s) will not be included.
  2. The City will not include any editorial or other comments regarding the reason for the request. The City will edit and/or remove any additional information that is contained within the request so that the post is limited to the FOAA request.
  3. The City will not post a FOAA request that is an attempt to make any confidential material public through the City’s practice of posting a FOAA request. The City has a legal duty to keep confidential information confidential. Any request that jeopardizes that legal requirement will not be posted.
  4. Additionally, the City, at its sole discretion, may summarize or abbreviate the text of the request in order to improve the ability of site visitors to locate specific subject matter.

In the event that the text of a request is changed or modified in any fashion, the posting will include notation that the request has been edited.

Vital Records

Nearly all records in the possession of the City are considered public records and are available for public review. There is a subcategory of public records called vital records. While vital records are considered public documents, the process for obtaining such records is slightly different than a formal request for public records under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.

Vital records are maintained by emailing the City Clerk and may be obtained directly from the City Clerk’s office. Vital records include such items as birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage certificates. There are fees associated with obtaining these records. The process for obtaining these vital records and the associated fees are explained on the City Clerk’s Vital Record page.