GMU Charges $352.01 for New Fairfax Casino Records

After public revelations from the last batch of FOIA records, GMU now imposes a FOIA fee.

Last week, I wrote about responsive records from a FOIA request to George Mason University, records that detailed the relationship between Comstock CEO Chris Clemente and GMU professors on the topic of the proposed casino in Fairfax. In that case, GMU turned over 20 records, withheld one, redacted parts of the records, and didn’t charge any FOIA fees.

After digesting the revelations in those records, some of which Nathaniel Cline wrote about today in the Virginia Mercury, I submitted a follow-up FOIA request to GMU on February 7, 2025. I requested:

(1) All communications to/from Dean Mark Rozell containing the term "Comstock" from July 1, 2024 until today;

(2) All communications to/from Professor David Ramadan containing the term "Comstock" from July 1, 2024 until today;

(3) All communications to/from Professor Terry Clower containing the term "Comstock" from January 15, 2025 until today;

(4) All communications from Chris Clemente to any University employee from July 1, 2024 until today.

After exercising their right under Va. Code § 2.2-3704(B)(4) to take up to seven additional work days to process my request, the University responded on February 11 in pertinent part:

This is in response to your FOIA request. University staff estimates that your request will cost $352.01, with 503 responsive records found. If you would like us to continue to process your request, we would require a payment of 50% of the full estimate as a deposit.

If you would like Mason to respond to your FOIA request as originally written, please send a check for $176.00 as a 50% deposit made out to George Mason University…

As you can see, responsive records on this topic are no longer free at GMU. As you can also see, there are apparently 503 records concerning Comstock or Clemente from the last seven months.

Typically, I’d ask the public body to provide a breakdown of their cost estimate, an itemization of anticipated staff time and pay rates. Sen. Danica Roem (D-Prince William) has a bill this session addressing these FOIA rates.

But in this case, I’m just going to pay the FOIA fee, wait for the records, and report anything I suspect is of interest to the public.

As Doug Wilder would say… stay tuned!