Consolidated FOIA Dispute and Records Request: Charter Authority, FOIA Officer Appointment, Council Action, Training, Complaints, Fees, Police Delivery, and InspectionSeptember 24, 2026 at 4:05 PM Eastern · Kavonte Jones Sr., Gretna Junction / CrownThrive
From: Kavonte Jones Sr., Gretna Junction / CrownThrive
To: Michael G. Turner, Town Attorney / FOIA Officer
Read directly from the connected Gmail account. Quoted earlier-thread copies are omitted because the corresponding messages appear separately. Statements are those of the author and are not findings by the publication. Private contact details and incidental family information are redacted where present.
Mr. Turner,
Please treat this as my consolidated written response and additional FOIA
request concerning the Town of Gretna’s handling of my September 10,
September 16, September 20, and subsequent public-records correspondence.
Because you have identified yourself as Town Attorney and FOIA Officer, I
request that all further correspondence concerning these matters come
directly from you only. Please do not have the Clerk-Treasurer send
substantive or administrative FOIA correspondence to me. The Clerk may hold
records or blank forms for pickup, but I request that you personally send
any notice that records, forms, or inspection materials are ready.
I am attaching the Town documents and Gmail correspondence currently
available to me for your review, including the original September 16
hand-delivered packet, the September 23 response, the September 23 Gmail
transmittals, and the September 24 response/laboratory report. Please
review them together with the September 10, September 16, September 20,
September 21, and September 22 email correspondence already in the Town’s
possession.
This email is intentionally detailed because the Town’s responses now
contain material inconsistencies concerning appointment authority, meeting
action, fees, dates, document counts, inspection, and the use of police
officers.
1. NO “30-DAY DEADLINE TO PAY” AND NO WITHDRAWAL FOR NONRESPONSE
Your September 24 letter states that I have “30 days” to make an
appointment, pay the bill, and view the records.
Please identify the statutory basis for that statement.
Virginia Code § 2.2-3704(F) provides that a request is deemed withdrawn
only if the public body receives no response from the requester within 30
days after sending a cost estimate. I have repeatedly responded. I
responded to the September 16 estimate on September 16, narrowed the
requests, disputed the charges, elected inspection/electronic production,
and continued corresponding afterward.
Accordingly, please confirm that none of these requests will be deemed
withdrawn based on “no response.”
I understand that an advance deposit properly required under § 2.2-3704(H)
may toll the response period while the deposit issue remains unresolved.
That is different from saying I have a statutory 30-day deadline to “pay my
bill.”
Section 2.2-3704(I) separately addresses amounts owed for previous requests
that have remained unpaid 30 days or more after billing. The Town’s
September 22 email characterized the $200 as an “outstanding balance” only
days after the September 16 response. Please identify whether the Town is
invoking subsection F, H, I, or some combination, and explain how each
applies.
I do not concede that I presently owe any of the changing amounts asserted
by the Town.
I also note that subsection F states that costs incurred in estimating the
cost of supplying records are applied toward the overall charges for
supplying those records. Please explain why the Town has at times
characterized the estimate-preparation amount as a separate “outstanding
balance” rather than an amount to be credited within the overall production
cost.
2. FEE AND ARITHMETIC DISCREPANCIES
The Town’s figures do not reconcile.
September 16: approximately $1,900 plus 25 cents per page.
September 22: $200 plus $358.55, stated to equal $558.55.
September 23: $558.55 in staff costs plus $276 in copying costs, stated to
equal $834.55.
September 24: your letter repeatedly states that I owe $588.33.
Please reconcile each figure.
The September 23 table also appears mathematically incorrect. It lists
Crystal Grubbs at 2.75 hours × $29.71 per hour but assigns $74.27 to that
work. 2.75 × $29.71 is approximately $81.70.
Using the hours and rates printed in the September 23 table produces
approximately $565.98, not $558.55.
The initial-estimate table lists $150.00 + $22.28 + $33.57 but reports
$205.82. Those printed subtotals equal $205.85.
Please identify whether each discrepancy is in the hours, hourly rate,
subtotal, or final total.
Please also explain where the September 24 figure of $588.33 came from.
Until the Town produces a corrected and reconciled accounting, I dispute
any characterization that I owe $558.55, $588.33, $834.55, $1,900, or
another amount.
3. ACTUAL-COST BASIS AND LOWEST-POSSIBLE-COST REQUIREMENT
Please provide the existing records supporting the claimed hours and
charges for Bill Gillespie, Crystal Grubbs, Chief John Hewitt, and any
other employee or attorney whose time is included.
For each claimed block of time, please provide existing time sheets, notes,
worksheets, billing calculations, internal routing records, emails, or
other contemporaneous records showing the date, task, duration, and
employee.
Please distinguish:
searching for records;
accessing/retrieving records;
initial responsiveness/exemption review;
redaction;
duplication;
supplying records;
administrative communication;
secondary legal review;
policy discussion;
delivery activity;
and other tasks.
Your September 23 letter says some time was spent “thinking about how to
best respond” to my requests. Please identify the specific chargeable
record-production function that phrase represents.
Please also explain why Town Manager time at $100 per hour and Chief of
Police time were necessary for each task and whether lower-cost
administrative staff could perform any portion of the work.
Please state whether any time connected to the personal police delivery,
signature witnessing, locating me, calling third parties, or preparing the
delivery procedure was included in any amount charged to me.
4. COPYING FEES AND INSPECTION
The September 16 packet states 25 cents per page.
The September 23 response changes the figure to 20 cents per page.
Please provide the existing actual-cost calculation supporting each rate
and identify the effective fee policy applicable on September 10, September
16, and September 23.
I am presently requesting inspection, not blanket paper copies. Please
remove copying costs from any inspection amount unless I later identify
specific documents that I want copied.
5. 1,380 “RECORDS” VERSUS 1,380 “PAGES”
The September 23 response describes approximately 1,380 “separate records”
based on treating each sheet as a separate record.
The September 24 response describes 1,380 “pages.”
Please clarify which is accurate.
I do not authorize additional paid staff time simply to conduct a new hand
count. If the Town already maintains a production index, folder list, file
list, inventory, or request-tracking record showing the responsive
categories and approximate volume, please provide it.
6. CHARACTERIZING ONE EMAIL AS “SEVEN SEPARATE REQUESTS”
The September 23 and September 24 letters repeatedly characterize the
numbered components of my emails as seven separate requests.
My September 16 email was one follow-up communication that narrowed two
September 10 requests and then addressed inspection, costs, the FOIA
officer, and delivery procedure. My September 20 email likewise combined an
editorial request for response with requests for existing records.
Please identify whether the Town’s decision to count individual numbered
sections as separate FOIA requests affected the fee calculation, workload
estimate, deadlines, or characterization of “volume.”
If there is an existing Town policy governing when categories within one
email are treated as separate FOIA requests, please provide it.
7. ELECTRONIC RECORDS
My requests include categories that may originate electronically, including
email, CAD/calls-for-service data, policies, grant applications,
procurement materials, funding correspondence, and other communications.
The September 23 response broadly states that the responsive records are
not held in an electronically transmissible format.
Please identify by category which responsive records:
exist only on paper;
exist electronically;
were printed from electronic originals;
are maintained in a database or software system;
or are maintained in another electronic format used by the Town in the
regular course of business.
I continue to request electronically maintained nonexempt records
electronically where reasonably available.
8. TOWN MANAGER AUTHORITY TO “VERBALLY APPOINT” A FOIA OFFICER
Your September 23 letter states that you were “appointed verbally by the
Town Manager of Gretna who has sole authority and discretion to procure
individuals to assist the Town in the delivery of essential services such
as FOIA services,” and that Town Council later confirmed your appointment
by motion on September 23.
Please identify the legal authority for that statement.
The Town of Gretna Charter § 4(A) vests the administration and government
of the Town in Town Council, gives Council the power to elect or appoint
officers and define their duties, and places the Town Manager under
Council’s control.
Virginia Code § 15.2-1501 provides that where general law or special act
does not identify the officer who performs a duty, the officer is
designated by the governing body, and that the governing body may authorize
the chief administrative officer to make administrative designations.
Accordingly, please provide the ordinance, resolution, motion, policy,
charter provision, or other Council action that was in effect before
September 23, 2026 and delegated to Bill Gillespie the authority to
designate the Town’s FOIA Officer.
If no such prior delegation existed, please state that plainly.
Please also identify:
the exact date of the alleged verbal appointment;
the time and location;
every person present or participating;
the words or substance of the designation;
and every existing contemporaneous record referencing that verbal
appointment, including emails, notes, calendar entries, billing entries,
memoranda, or staff instructions.
9. SEPTEMBER 23 COUNCIL “CONFIRMATION” - MEETING RECORDS
Your September 23 letter states that Town Council confirmed your FOIA
Officer appointment by an adopted motion on September 23, 2026.
Please provide all existing records of that meeting and action, including:
the meeting notice;
proof and date/time of website posting;
proof and date/time of posting at the Town’s regular public-notice location;
proof and date/time of posting at the Clerk’s office;
the proposed agenda;
the agenda packet;
all materials furnished to Council relating to your FOIA Officer
appointment;
records showing whether the appointment item appeared on the proposed
agenda before the meeting began;
the date, time, location, and type of meeting;
records showing who called or scheduled the meeting;
notice provided to Council members;
attendance and quorum records;
the complete text of the motion;
the name of the member who made the motion;
the name of the member who seconded it;
the vote of each member;
draft and final minutes;
the Clerk’s notes;
any audio or video recording;
and any closed-session motion, certification, or related record if the
appointment was discussed in closed session.
The Town’s website states that regular Council meetings are normally held
on the second Tuesday of the month unless otherwise scheduled. September
23, 2026 was not the ordinary second-Tuesday meeting date. If this was a
special, continued, or rescheduled meeting, please provide the
corresponding notice and scheduling records.
If the FOIA Officer confirmation was added to the agenda after the meeting
commenced, please provide the records establishing the basis for any final
action on the added item.
10. PUBLIC IDENTIFICATION OF THE FOIA OFFICER
Please identify the exact date on which you were first publicly identified
as the Town’s FOIA Officer.
Please provide the version of the Town website, public posting,
publication, or other record that first identified you as FOIA Officer and
the date it was posted or published.
Please also provide the Town’s FOIA rights-and-responsibilities statement
in effect on September 10, September 16, and September 23, including the
FOIA Officer contact information, charge policy, and any link to the
Virginia FOIA Advisory Council public-comment form.
11. FOIA OFFICER TRAINING - INCLUDING TRAINING STATUS ON APPOINTMENT DATE
Because you are legal counsel for the Town and also claim designation as
the Town’s FOIA Officer, please provide the existing records documenting
the training applicable to that designation.
Please provide:
the date of each qualifying FOIA training;
the course title;
the provider;
whether the course was offered or approved by the Virginia Freedom of
Information Advisory Council;
the certificate or other documentation of completion;
registration and attendance records;
any submission to the FOIA Advisory Council concerning your name/contact
information;
and any record showing your listing with the FOIA Advisory Council.
Please specifically identify whether the required qualifying training had
been completed before the alleged verbal appointment and before the
September 23 Council action.
If not, please state the date on which qualifying training was completed.
12. CLAIM THAT FOIA PROCEDURE IS WITHIN YOUR “SOLE DISCRETION”
Your September 23 response states that, as FOIA Officer, you determine the
procedure for compliance with FOIA requests “in [your] sole discretion” and
that your directives are transmitted to Town employees whom you hold
accountable, except the Town Manager.
Please identify the legal and municipal authority for those assertions.
Virginia Code § 2.2-3704.2 describes the FOIA Officer as a point of contact
and coordinator of the public body’s compliance. The Town Charter vests the
Town’s administration and government in Council.
Please provide any ordinance, resolution, motion, employment agreement,
retainer/engagement agreement, job description, policy, or Council
delegation that grants you:
sole discretion to establish FOIA procedures;
supervisory authority over Town employees;
authority to direct the Chief of Police in FOIA administration;
and authority to hold Town employees accountable for performance.
Please provide the nonprivileged portions of your Town Attorney engagement
agreement or contract sufficient to show the scope of your authority and
services.
13. CITIZEN COMPLAINT FORMS - SIX BLANK COPIES FOR PICKUP
Please provide existing blank copies of every citizen complaint form
presently used or accepted by the Town, including, if maintained:
a general Town citizen complaint form;
a Gretna Police Department complaint/internal-affairs form;
a complaint form concerning a Town officer or employee;
an ethics or administrative complaint form;
a liability/incident/notice-of-claim form;
and any Virginia Municipal League, Virginia Risk Sharing Association
(formerly VML Insurance Programs), insurer, or risk-pool complaint/claim
form that the Town has adopted, uses, or provides to citizens.
I am requesting the forms exactly as they presently exist, including
existing Town, VML, VRSA, insurer, or other official letterhead/logos. I am
not asking the Town to create a new record solely for me.
If no such form exists for any category, please say so.
For each existing form, please have six blank copies placed with the Town
Clerk for pickup. Please have you, not the Clerk, notify me by email when
the six-copy sets are ready.
If there is a charge for six blank copies, please provide the actual
duplication cost in advance. If practical, I request that these routine
blank complaint forms be provided without charge.
14. INTERNAL REVIEW OF CITIZEN COMPLAINTS
Please provide the existing policy, ordinance, resolution, general order,
personnel rule, organizational directive, or other record showing the
process for receiving, investigating, reviewing, and deciding citizen
complaints involving:
a police officer;
the Chief of Police;
the Town Manager;
the Town Attorney/FOIA Officer;
the Clerk/Treasurer;
and other Town employees or appointed officers.
Please identify through existing records who is currently designated to
conduct the initial review, investigation, supervisory review, and final
decision for each category.
Please provide existing records addressing:
recusal when the complaint concerns the normal reviewer;
escalation or appeal;
internal-affairs review;
Council review;
Mayor review;
Personnel Committee review;
Fire & Police Committee review;
Insurance/risk-management review;
applicable timelines;
notice to the complainant;
record retention;
and how a citizen receives a written disposition.
The Town Charter § 4(K) assigns the Mayor supervisory and investigative
authority concerning subordinate officers. Please provide any current
ordinance, resolution, policy, or practice implementing that charter
provision and showing how it interacts with citizen complaints.
15. FIRST POLICE DELIVERY - INTIMIDATION/COERCION OBJECTION
I again formally object to the September 16 delivery procedure.
Chief Hewitt and another sworn officer arrived for an administrative FOIA
matter, I signed the Town’s acknowledgment on the hood of [family relationship redacted]
vehicle, and the two officers signed as witnesses.
The Town’s original document itself states that it was “Received in person”
on September 16 and contains two witness signatures.
I told Chief Hewitt the Town could call or email me and I would come to
Town Hall.
I then documented my objection in writing the same day and expressly asked
that sworn officers not be sent for routine FOIA correspondence absent a
genuine law-enforcement need.
I experienced the procedure as intimidating and coercive because two sworn
police officers were used for an administrative records matter in a manner
resembling formal service or enforcement. I am describing the effect of the
procedure; I am not assigning an unproven personal motive to the individual
officers.
Your September 23 letter now states that you directed Chief Hewitt and
another officer to make contact with me and deliver the response.
Please provide all existing nonexempt records concerning that decision,
including communications involving you, Mr. Gillespie, Ms. Grubbs, Chief
Hewitt, the second officer, or others concerning:
the decision to use police officers;
instructions given to the officers;
the decision to use two officers;
the requirement or request that I sign;
the use of witnesses;
the decision to locate me personally;
and consideration of email, telephone, mail, or Town Hall pickup.
Please also provide any written policy authorizing or requiring a FOIA
requester to sign an acknowledgment in front of two witnesses.
16. SEPTEMBER 22 THREATENED/ANNOUNCED SECOND TWO-OFFICER CONTACT
After my written September 16 objection, the September 22 Town email stated:
“If we do not hear back from you by 4 pm today, we will send two officers
out to inform you of the next step in your request.”
Please identify who authorized that proposed second two-officer contact and
provide existing records concerning that instruction.
Please explain why two sworn officers were considered necessary after I had
already given the Town a functioning email channel and had expressly
offered to come to Town Hall.
I subsequently documented my concern with the Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s
Office under report 2026-01928. I am not offering the existence of that
report as proof of wrongdoing; I am identifying it because the chronology
has been formally preserved.
17. EMAIL-DELIVERY / AI-FRAUD LANGUAGE
Your September 23 letter states that the Town could not be certain its
emails were received and adds that emails can be manufactured or
fraudulently produced by AI.
Please identify every specific Town email that you contend received no
response and the date sent.
Please identify whether the Town had any actual evidence that an email I
sent was fabricated, altered, fraudulently produced, or otherwise
inauthentic.
If not, please clarify that the AI/fraud language was general commentary
and was not an accusation against me.
18. DELIVERY-DATE DISCREPANCY
Your September 23 letter states in one passage that the Town’s first
response was hand-delivered on September 15 and elsewhere states September
16.
The original Town packet is dated September 16 and the signed receipt page
states September 16.
Please correct the Town’s record and confirm the actual date.
19. SEPTEMBER 24 RESPONSE - ITEM NUMBER AND CHARACTERIZATION
Your September 24 response states that the Town voluntarily provided a
report addressing “Question No. 6” concerning the September 9
bacteriological sample.
In my September 20 email, the September 9 sampling issue is Item 4, not
Item 6.
Please confirm and correct that error.
The September 24 letter also states that I “declined to inspect” because of
my “unwillingness” to pay $588.33.
I dispute that characterization.
I have repeatedly requested inspection. I have declined to pay a changing
and mathematically inconsistent amount before the Town reconciles and
supports it.
Please correct the record accordingly.
20. WATER SAMPLE AND OUTSTANDING WATER RECORDS
Thank you for the DCLS report.
It appears to reflect a September 9 sample from the routine location
identified as VDOT (030), with total coliform and E. coli reported absent.
Your September 24 response also states that the sample was not collected
specifically at Franklin Boulevard.
Please state whether any Town record exists concerning a September 9
Franklin Boulevard-specific inspection, flushing verification, complaint
investigation, bacteriological sample, or other water-quality verification.
If no responsive record exists, please state that.
The narrowed water-treatment/procurement records remain outstanding,
including Gatewood procurement/selection records, final grant applications,
funding notices and agreements, current project cost/funding status,
engineering/design status, permit/bid status, and anticipated construction
schedule.
21. GRETNA VILLAGE RECORDS
Please make the narrowed Gretna Village records available for inspection,
including the existing CAD/calls-for-service or dispatch export,
directed-patrol/special-attention records, agreements concerning recurring
police presence or trespass enforcement, Town Council materials mentioning
Gretna Village/327 Payne Street, and the current written policy/general
order governing directed or enhanced patrol attention.
For any withholding or redaction, please identify the specific exemption
and provide reasonably segregable nonexempt material.
22. INSPECTION - EARLIEST AVAILABLE TIME, QUIET ROOM, AND MINIMAL
SUPERVISION
If the records are already assembled and available, I will make myself
available at the earliest practical opportunity, including as early as the
next business opening if the Town can accommodate it.
Please provide the earliest available inspection date and start time.
I request a quiet room or workspace where I can conduct the review without
continuous direct staff observation, to the extent consistent with the
Town’s reasonable obligations to preserve and safeguard original records.
If the Town believes continuous in-room supervision is necessary, please
identify the written policy or specific preservation concern and use the
least intrusive reasonable method.
I request permission to take notes and, for nonexempt records, photograph
pages with my own phone for personal review so I can avoid unnecessary
copying charges. If the Town has a written policy restricting that
practice, please provide it.
I will comply with an ordinary and uniformly applicable visitor or
records-inspection sign-in procedure. I do not agree that FOIA access
should be conditioned on a special witnessed acknowledgment unless you
identify the written authority requiring it.
23. REQUEST FOR FEE WAIVER / FREE INSPECTION
Because the records are described as already assembled and available,
because I am requesting inspection rather than blanket copying, because the
fee calculations are disputed and internally inconsistent, and because the
records concern matters of substantial public interest, I request that the
Town exercise its discretion to permit inspection without charge.
If you decline the waiver, please provide the corrected actual-cost amount
attributable specifically to making the already-assembled records available
for inspection, excluding copy charges I have not requested, secondary
legal review, general administrative/policy work, and other nonproduction
expenses.
24. STATUS OF EVERY REQUEST
Please identify the status of each request arising from my September 10,
September 16, and September 20 communications.
For each, please state whether the Town considers it open, completed,
partially completed, tolled pending a deposit, withdrawn, or otherwise
closed, and identify the controlling date.
If the Town maintains an existing FOIA log or tracking record showing this
information, please provide that record.
25. PRESERVATION
Please preserve all records relating to these requests and disputes,
including emails, texts, internal messages, billing/time records, draft
responses, Council records, appointment/designation records, FOIA training
records, website/public-posting records, police instructions, delivery
records, call records, meeting notices/agendas/minutes/recordings,
complaint policies/forms, and request logs.
26. RESPONSE FROM YOU ONLY
Again, because you have identified yourself as the Town’s FOIA Officer, I
request that you be the sole Town correspondent to me on these matters.
You may have records and six-copy complaint-form sets physically held by
the Clerk for pickup, but please have all readiness notices, fee notices,
inspection scheduling, legal explanations, and substantive responses sent
directly by you.
I am attempting to narrow these disputes through records, arithmetic, the
Charter, and the controlling statutes rather than through unnecessary
escalation.
Please respond point by point and identify where the Town agrees, where it
disputes my reading, and the exact existing records or legal authority
supporting each disputed point.
For ease of review, the relevant Gmail correspondence incorporated into
this dispute includes:
September 10 - Water Treatment Plant / procurement request;
September 10 - Gretna Village police activity request;
September 16 - narrowed scope, inspection election, fee challenge, FOIA
Officer request, and police-delivery objection;
September 20 - Gretna Junction request for response and records;
September 21 - Town acknowledgment;
September 22 - Town fee/inspection email containing the stated plan to send
two officers;
September 23 - FOIA response transmittal;
September 23 - inspection-hours follow-up;
September 24 - Town Attorney/FOIA Officer response and DCLS attachment.
Thank you.
[Signature and contact details redacted.]
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