In early January, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) published a preliminary report detailing public record request data from 2019.
In 2017, the Legislature passed HB 1594, which directed certain state and local government agencies to report annually on
metrics related to public records retention, management, and disclosure. Only cities that spend more than $100,000 annually fulfilling public record requests are required to submit their data to JLARC.
The 2019 report includes information from 71 cities and towns. Respondents provided data on 15 different metrics, including the number of requests received and total
expenses for the year. Some variance and inconsistencies exist in the data; however, the overall numbers show that cities dedicate a significant number of resources to manage public records programs.
Between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019, the 71 reporting cities received a total of 130,859 public records requests – an increase of over 8,000
requests from 2018. During that same time period, cities closed 128,205 public records requests. In total, cities and towns received and responded to over one-third
of all public record requests reported in 2019.
In total, cities and towns received and responded to over one-third
of all public record requests reported in 2019.
Cities reported that they dedicated 462,830 staff hours to responding to public record requests spending an estimated average of 3.41 hours per request. This is
a 1.1 hour increase to the 2018 estimated average. Dedicated staff hours carry costs; cities estimated they spent over $30.5 million fulfilling record requests or an average of $225.34 per request.
Unfortunately, the number of court claims filed against cities increased from 11 in 2018 to 20 in 2019. Cost of litigating these claims rose slighting in 2019 to $1.1 million from $1 million in 2018.
In total, cities reported that they spent $53 million in 2019 managing and retaining records. Despite receiving over one third of all reported requests, the average city spent less on managing their public records system at about $756,000 compared to
the state-wide agency average of $878,000.
The preliminary report is available on the JLARC website. The presentation given to JLARC is also available for review.