Ask for the emails between a city department and a developer. Ask for the inspection report on the rental house down the block. Ask for the contract behind a road project. In most cases you are entitled to see those records, and you never have to explain why you want them. Virginia's Freedom of Information Act makes most records held by Norfolk city government open to inspection by the public. The catch is that the law rewards precision. A sprawling, vague request can stall for weeks. A tight one often lands in your inbox within days. Here is how to write one that works.
What Virginia's FOIA actually promises
The relevant law is the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, Code of Virginia § 2.2-3700 and the sections that follow it. It covers the City of Norfolk, its departments, City Council, and the boards and commissions that do city business. It runs on a presumption of openness, and the burden sits with the government, not with you, to justify withholding something.
Two limits are worth understanding before you type a word. First, FOIA gets you records, not answers. The city does not have to explain a decision, compile a summary that doesn't already exist, or write a new document to satisfy your request. If you want to know why a project was approved, look for the emails, memos and reports where that decision was discussed.
Second, not every Norfolk institution answers to the same request. Norfolk Public Schools, the Norfolk Sheriff's Office, the Clerk of Circuit Court, and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority are separate public bodies with their own records custodians. Send a schools request to the city and you will simply lose a week.
Step one: find the right custodian
Every public body in Virginia designates a FOIA officer. For general city business, start at norfolk.gov and search for "FOIA." The city maintains a request form and lists the officer who handles it. City Hall sits at 810 Union Street, and written requests by mail or email are both fine. Police reports, incident narratives and body camera policies go to the Norfolk Police Department's own FOIA contact rather than to a general city office.
If you genuinely cannot tell who holds what you want, send the request to the city's FOIA officer anyway and ask them to route it. They field this question constantly. Then save everything: the email you sent, the reply, the date stamps. That paper trail is what you point to if the five-day clock slips.
Step two: write a request that's easy to fill
This is where most requests succeed or fail. The person reading your email is looking for a definable stack of documents they can pull, review and send. Give them a description they can search on.
A weak request reads like this: "I want all records related to the redevelopment of the St. Paul's area." A workable version reads like this: "Copies of emails and attachments between the Department of City Planning and [company name] between January 1 and March 31 of this year that mention the property appraisal." You cannot describe a document you have never seen, but you can almost always describe time, place, people and subject.
- Name the department or office. "The city" is not a search term.
- Give a date range. Narrower ranges get answered faster and cost less.
- Offer search terms. Names, addresses, project titles and phrases that would appear in the document itself.
- Say what format you want. Ask for spreadsheets as spreadsheets and emails as PDFs or native files.
- Request a cost estimate up front if the job sounds large.
- One topic per request. Bundling unrelated items invites delays and a bigger bill.
- Include your name, mailing address, email and the date. The response clock starts when your request arrives.
What a request costs
Virginia allows a public body to charge for the actual cost of searching for, accessing, duplicating, supplying and mailing records, plus supplies. It does not allow "extraneous, intermediary, or surplus fees" tacked on to recoup general operating costs, and it generally does not permit charging you for the time staff spend deciding whether a page is exempt. In practice you will usually see a per-page copying charge and, on bigger jobs, billed staff time.
Two protections are worth using. If the city estimates the cost will exceed $200, it must notify you before it does the work — that is your moment to narrow the request or walk away. And you can ask for an itemized estimate in advance so nothing is a surprise at the end. The city may also ask for prepayment on a large request.
If a fee looks inflated, ask politely for a written breakdown and the legal basis for it. If real money or an important record is at stake, it is worth talking with an attorney who handles Virginia FOIA matters.
How long it should take
The clock is short. A public body must respond to your request within five working days. It does not have to hand over everything that fast, but it does have to say something in writing: here are the records, here is why we are withholding part of them, or here is the problem with your request.
If the job cannot be finished in five working days, the city may take up to seven additional working days, but only if it tells you so in writing during the first five. Working days are weekdays minus holidays, so a request that arrives the Friday before a long weekend is not moving until Tuesday. You can always agree to a longer extension, and for a big email search you may want to. What the city cannot do is go silent.
When records are withheld — and what to do next
Virginia requires the city to respond in writing and cite the specific section of the Code that lets it withhold a record. Common exemptions cover personnel matters, active criminal investigations, attorney-client communications, certain procurement and real estate negotiation documents, and proprietary business information. Redactions are normal; a page can come back half blacked out and still tell you plenty.
If you think an exemption was stretched too far, you have options.
- Ask in writing for the legal citation and a fuller explanation. A narrower follow-up request sometimes reaches the same information.
- Request an advisory opinion from the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council. It is free, it is written, and while it is not binding, public bodies pay attention to it.
- Petition the circuit court. Virginia FOIA has no enforcement agency — the courts are the remedy. If you substantially prevail, the court may order the city to cover your costs and attorney fees. There are filing deadlines, so do not sit on a denial.
Before you escalate, talk with a lawyer if the record matters enough to fight over. Deadlines and procedural rules are unforgiving.
Before you hit send: a quick checklist
- Written request, dated, with your contact information.
- Sent to the correct custodian, not just to "the city."
- One topic, a tight date range, and specific search terms.
- Format requested, and an estimate asked for if the job is large.
- A copy saved somewhere you will find it in three months.
Then note the day it went out. Five working days is not much time, and it starts when your request lands, not when someone gets around to opening it. Keep the timestamp, keep the replies, and follow up in writing the moment the deadline passes. Most requests are answered without any drama at all — the ones that go wrong are usually the ones that were too broad to answer.
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