HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Town Council unanimously approved a Freedom of Access Act policy outlining the municipality’s public records request process and how to access the town’s public FOAA log.
The new FOAA policy is a positive step in increasing local government transparency following two years of repeated public records requests challenges.
According to the new Houlton policy, the FOAA officer will provide the person seeking public records an estimate of time and cost within five days of the request. Costs over $50 will be paid in advance and fee waiver requests must be approved by the town manager. All actions will be noted by date in the FOAA log.
The Aroostook County town depleted its 2025 legal budget handling Freedom of Access Act requests from residents and defending itself against related legal actions. The new policy was part of a settlement agreement tied to the town’s controversial surveillance camera system.
The agreement between the town and area residents — Mark Lipscombe, Craig Harriman and Patrick Bruce — who have filed multiple actions related to FOAA records requests and challenged the townwide cameras’ legality, was the result of months of negotiating between the men and town officials.
As one of multiple actions required in the settlement, the town was required to produce any remaining FOAA requests for public documents by the three men and create and maintain a publicly accessible FOAA log on the town’s website updating the log within five business days of any FOAA response.
In exchange, the men agreed to not sue the town, if all terms of the agreement were completed.
As the men sought public documents from the town, Harriman and Lipscombe filed legal appeals in Aroostook County Superior Court because they said officials did not fulfill their requests in a timely manner.
Harriman twice filed a Rule 80B appeal, which is a Superior Court filing to challenge actions taken by government agencies. Both times he was seeking to enforce his right to inspect government records under Maine law.
In Harriman’s first filing there was a February 2025 trial in Houlton.
Following over an hour of testimony by Tim DeLuca, the police chief and Town Clerk Kylee Wampler, District Court Judge Robert Langner determined that because most of the documents were eventually provided to Harriman, the town did not violate the state’s FOAA laws. However, Langner noted that the town did not initially respond to Harriman’s written queries for the records.
Similar to Harriman, Lipscombe also filed a Rule 80B appeal last year related to documents he never received from his repeated FOAA requests about a police interaction with his minor child.
“Not one single time did anyone from the police department respond to my attempts at dialogue. The town chose to delay the complaints. I simply filed a straightforward Freedom of Access Act request about my own child,” he said in a public meeting last year.
