For accuracy and transparency, here is the original RTKL request and the resulting OOR Final Determination, reproduced verbatim. No commentary needed—the documents speak for themselves.

Reading Note (Context, Not Conclusion) This essay does not ask the reader to assign motive, fault, or virtue to any person or institution. It exists to clarify a category error that often occurs when administrative records are encountered in public discourse: the premature assignment of “good faith” or “bad faith.” The archive referenced here is intentionally not public-facing. It consists of procedural materials that may be evaluated on their own terms. Readers are encouraged to suspend narrative reflex and engage with the essay as a discussion of how we read records—not what we should conclude from Good or Bad Faith Is Not an Objective Standard When a citizen requests public records from an institution, a quiet but powerful process begins long before any document is read. Not inside the agency. Inside the observer. Before evidence is weighed, before timelines are examined, before statutes are consulted, the human mind often assigns meaning. And meaning, in our cultural moment, is frequently collapsed into a moral binary: good faith or bad faith. This essay argues that such assignments—whether negative or positive—are not objective standards at the intake stage of administrative process. They are subconscious overlays. They may feel intuitive, even responsible, but they are premature. And they interfere with discernment. The archive at issue consists of a narrow set of materials: A Right-to-Know requestAgency responsesA final administrative determinationA subsequent appealNothing more. It does not assert motive. It does not accuse wrongdoing. It does not declare corruption or virtue. It asks for documents that either exist or do not, were searched for or were not, were produced or were withheld. These are procedural questions, not moral ones. The archive does not ask the reader to decide who is good or bad. It asks only that the reader consider records as records, and process as process. The Twin Presuppositions We Carry Most readers arrive carrying one of two unspoken belief sets—often without realizing it.

If you read my substack article, this is where this document is made available. It is restricted until access is requested.

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