Answer FOIA requests in minutes, not days.
Dekree drafts the response using your records, cites the statute, and redacts the PII. You approve and send. Nothing leaves your office without your click.
FIG. 1A FOIA request travels three stages. Dekree handles the first two. The clerk owns the third.
Right now your FOIA process lives in three places. Your inbox, a binder, and your head.
Dekree replaces all three. Same statutes, same forms, same five-day clock. With the typing done for you and a paper trail you can hand to an auditor.
From inbox to approved, in three actions.
A request lands in your queue.
Forwarded from the township inbox or pasted in. Dekree classifies it, extracts the requester, and starts the deadline clock the moment it arrives.
Dekree drafts the response.
Pulls the right MCL exemptions. Calculates the 5-business-day deadline. Auto-redacts PII the moment it sees a phone number, address, or SSN. Cites the statute inline.
You approve. It sends.
Read it. Edit it. Approve it. The response goes to the requester through your sender domain. Every action is logged with timestamp and user: append-only, audit-grade.
FIG. 1A new FOIA request appears in the inbox with a deadline pill.
Every detail a clerk asks about, answered upfront.
5 business days, holiday-aware
Statutory deadlines
Five business days, holiday-aware. The clock starts the moment a request lands.
MCL citations, applied
Every exemption checked against MCL 15.243(1)(a) through (cc). Cited inline.
Permanent server-side redaction
PII redaction, automatic
Phone numbers, addresses, SSNs flagged on contact. Permanent server-side redaction.
Forward your township inbox once. Done.
Inbound email built in
Forward your township inbox once. Dekree handles classification end to end.
Roles your council needs
Clerks draft. Supervisors approve. Council views. Residents track.
Audit trail, append-only
Every action timestamped, attributed, and exportable. Built to survive a review.
The requests that actually eat your week.
Any tool can log a simple request. What costs you time is the one that stalls waiting on a deposit, the one you have already answered, and the one where the clock is running while you wait on someone else.
Put the clock on hold
Waiting on the requester to clarify, or on a deposit to clear? Put the request on hold and the statutory clock stops. It resumes on its own when they pay or reply, and the deadline moves by exactly the days you waited.
Catch the duplicate before you work it
Open a request and Dekree tells you if it looks like one you already have, so two people do not spend a week answering the same question twice. One tap links them together.
Anonymous requests, if you want them
Michigan allows a requester to stay anonymous. Turn it on and your form offers the choice, with a plain warning that there will be no receipt and no status emails. Off by default.
Records release themselves on payment
Turn it on for a request and the moment the balance is paid, every held record is released to the requester. No waiting for someone to notice the payment came in.
Answer it before it becomes a request
When a resident starts filling out your form, Dekree offers them the records you have already published, including your posted minutes and agendas. The best FOIA request is the one nobody had to file.
One deadline, everywhere
Every screen states the same date, computed from your organization’s calendar day in holiday-aware business days, and says which unit it is using. The number you see is the number that is legally true.
The fee math is the part that gets you sued.
Michigan is specific about what you may charge and what you may not. Dekree does that arithmetic in the workflow, so the number on the bill is defensible before you send it.
Fees computed to the statute
Labor in 15-minute increments, the fringe-benefit cap, the 6x minimum-wage ceiling on contracted redaction, and the 10-cent-per-sheet copy cap under MCL 15.234(1)(a). Dekree will not let you overcharge, because it does the arithmetic the law requires.
Deposits, waivers, and indigence
The 50 percent deposit under MCL 15.234(8), the public-interest waiver, and the indigence and nonprofit reductions, all handled as part of the normal flow rather than as something you look up.
Redaction that cites its own reason
Social security numbers, card numbers, and bank routing numbers are detected with real validators, not a loose pattern match, and every detection arrives with the exemption that justifies it attached. The text is removed from the file itself, and the original is preserved.
Dekree shows you what the statute says and does the math it requires. It never tells you a disposal or a denial is legally safe. That judgment stays with you and your attorney.
Drafted by Dekree. Sent by you.
Every response Dekree drafts stops at one place: your approve button. No background sends, no auto-replies, no quiet emails to constituents in your name.
Dekree does not send email on your behalf. Ever.
The audit log records who clicked Approve, when, and which version.
Read the draft. Edit if you want. Approve if you mean it. That is the gate.
Buy the products you need.
Notice → Agenda → Minutes.
Schedules on autopilot.
Citizens self-serve.
The annual summary, one click.
Fees collected online. $0.
Statutes mapped to deadlines.
Dekree, inside your own site.
The packet, to every member.