City Open Records Request Process

because you have the right to know what’s happening at city hall. specifically, many of you told us how upset you were with the city manager getting a 50- thousand dollar pay raise… and allegations city rep. larry romero had streets in his district repaired… … even though they were not on a pre- approved list of streets that needed the most improvement. we filed an open records request trying to get all the emails city rep. larry romero sent and received about street resurfacing. and what the city sent us – once again left us surprised and confused. our maria garcia is live with a story you’ll see only on abc-7. the city said this one email was only one document related to my request. but when i asked romero about it, he gave me this stack of emails. so how did the city miss these when it looked for them? 42-49 08:03 our object is to get you what you want. we tell the council members all the time everything they produce – is an open record. that’s why we were stunned when the city said this one email was the only thing that came up when they looked for emails related to my request. i asked for all emails to and from romero and city engineering staff about street repaving. plus any emails from constituents about streets for about a year period. 03:25 the responses are going to be as good as the request initially the city asked me to clarify – saying my request was too broad. so i narrowed it down – naming specific city employees and still asking for emails from constituents about streets. 09:29 it’s when you start narrowing it and start saying streets and the computer is going to narrow it down that’s when the city gave me that one email- saying that’s the only thing the computer found – using key words- related to my request. 10:47 when you say constituents, that’s not going to help you. you have to say everything they received rather than searching for email from constituents, the city apparently searched for emails containing the word “constituents.” so it not surprising they didn’t find much. 08:54 maria: it sounds like it’s just really cumbersome to get communication from or received by city reps from constituents. syliva: actually it’s not. it’s not. because you could theoretically say i want to receive a copy of everything that’s in city rep’s xyz mailbox from this date to that date and you would get it. so if you want to search for something specific constituents have written to city reps. unless you know the name of the sender, you’ll have to cast a wide net with your request and comb through hundreds of emails yourself. when i told romero about the city’s response – he had his assistant go through his inbox and he gave me about 70 documents related to my request. thank you, maria. and we know you’re analyzing those emails and will let us know if there’s something news worthy in there.