Del. James M. LeMunyon, R-Fairfax, sponsored the bill that changed the law to add the FOIA officer requirement.

“I can tell you unequivocally there was no intent to make that person the exclusive person that a FOIA request would need to be directed to,” he said.

Additionally, Rhyne said, if Dunnavant is talking about her work as a senator on her Facebook page, then that’s public business and qualifies as a public record.

The Library of Virginia advises government agencies to retain social media posts if they are public records — meaning they were received in the transaction of public business such as receiving comments about the agency or its programs. That also applies to elected officials, according to the library.

The question of whether Dunnavant broke the law by not responding within five days or whether she broke the law by not turning over public records was not resolved.

Because Yoffy ruled Dunnavant couldn’t even be FOIA’d in the first place, “the court need not delve into any further analysis of the elements of Mr. Davison’s claim,” the ruling said.

Dunnavant said that after receiving the FOIA request, her office sent it to the state’s Division of Legislative Services.