It will be another two months before a decision is released about a fee waiver for an information request about former Pembina Hills school division Supt. Richard Harvey.
Adjudicator Wade Raaflaub said after an oral inquiry in August that he would release a decision by Nov. 30 — that deadline has now been pushed back to Jan. 31.
Karen Hesson, the Registrar of Inquiries with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, said the decision relates to Raaflaub’s workload and not to any specifics of the inquiry.
“He’s not in the process of collecting more information,” she said. “It’s a matter of balancing his workload. Most of our adjudicators are usually dealing with 20 cases simultaneously at different stages of completion.”
The Westlock News filed a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act in October 2010 for information about the former superintendent.
The division provided a fee estimate of nearly $4,000. The News asked for a fee waiver in January 2011 for the reason that this is a matter of public interest, which the division declined, and the issue has been in the formal appeal process since then.
The three issues addressed at the oral inquiry were whether the matter meets the legal definition of “public interest” and therefore qualifies for a fee waiver, whether the fees were properly estimated and whether the school division has a sufficient policy in place to allow it to charge fees.
Hesson also said the news that Harvey has been charged with fraud over $5,000 and breach of trust for allegedly submitting excessive expense claims while he was superintendent is not a factor in the delay, either.
The Westlock News has formally requested the Raaflaub take that new information into consideration in making his final decision, which is now expected by Jan. 31, 2013.
