The City of Myrtle Beach is working on gathering emails.
A Freedom of Information Act request filed on Sept. 10, 2024, asked the city for access to emails concerning the new downtown theater project in Myrtle Beach's Arts and Innovation District.
On Oct. 24, The Sun News paid the city $200 for emails for that request.
"Please be advised that the City charges retrieval, review and redaction time at the rate of $20.00 per hour," an Oct. 23 email from Myrtle Beach FOIA Paralegal Agatha Puleo said. "Due to the extent of your request and the volume of emails that were captured, the City anticipates expending at least 10 hours to review the emails to determine responsiveness as well as to redact any exempt information. As a result, attached is an invoice in the amount of $200.00."
As of Monday, The Sun News had not received any documents. South Carolina Press Association attorney Taylor Smith said state FOIA law allows the city 30 calendar days after they receive the deposit to deliver the documents.
According to the city's Director of Communications and Creative Services Meredith Denari, the documents will be received within that timeline, if not before then.
"Your FOIA-requested documents are in progress, she said via email in response to asking if The Sun News could pick up the requested documents in person with a flash drive. "There are a lot of files, and it requires a lot of time to sift through and redact the necessary information."
The last request for emails about the downtown theater project in September yielded one email.