CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
LAW DEPARTMENT
1300 PERDIDO STREET, 5th FLOOR EAST
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA 70112
TELEPHONE: (504) 658-9800
TELECOPIER: (504) 658-9868
MITCHELL J. LANDRIEU
MAYOR

SHARONDA R. WILLIAMS
CITY ATTORNEY

October 31, 2014
Eliseo Rodriguez II
SmartProcure
Re:

Via Electronic Mail
erodriguez@smartprocure.us

Public Records Law Request

Dear Mr. Rodgriguez:
Our office is in receipt of your Public Records Law request dated October 28,
2014 in which you requested the following:
SmartProcure is submitting a public records request to the
City of New Orleans for an electronic record (without
scanning or printing) of purchase orders dated 01/01/2010 to
current. The information requested is: 1. Purchase order
number or equivalent 2. Purchase order date 3. Line item
details 4. Line item quantity 5. Line item price 6. Vendor ID
number, name, address, contact person and email address.
The Department of Finance informed our office that it does not maintain a list of
the information you requested. In order to provide you with the requested information,
the Department would have to search each of the hundreds of thousands of “vendors”
which include any individual or entity to which the City of New Orleans has issued
payment (including, e.g., employees and child support recipients). Segregating the
requested information would be time consuming and tedious. In light of the City’s
limited resources and the amount of data involved your request is unreasonably
burdensome and expensive and will not be fulfilled. La. Rev. Stat. § 44:33A(2). .
Furthermore, your request requires the Department to create a new record.
Notably, the Public Records Law does not require the custodian to create a document to
satisfy a request. See Nungesser v. Brown, 95-3005 (La. 2/16/96); 667 So. 2d 1036,
1037. See also La. Op. Att’y Gen. 1996-97 (July 3, 1996); La. Op. Att’y Gen. 97-328
(July 27, 1997). Accordingly, your request will not be fulfilled.
Sincerely,

Anita B. Curran
Assistant City Attorney

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