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Unreasonable Records Request

jar546

jar546

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We just received a records request for all permits with permit number, location, date issued, status, description of work, contractor details, valuations, etc FOR NO particular address and going back to 1990. I might as well hire a new full time person for the next month to compile this. What do you do when it comes to requests such as this?
 
Can't your permit software just print a report? Our software is horrible for building department purposes, but even it will do that for the records we have digitized. Older than the computer system and we've got to go to the attic and dig them out and copy them - that takes a while.
 
jar546 said:
We just received a records request for all permits with permit number, location, date issued, status, description of work, contractor details, valuations, etc FOR NO particular address and going back to 1990. I might as well hire a new full time person for the next month to compile this. What do you do when it comes to requests such as this?
Click to expand...

Send it to your city attorney

And State attorney that covers open records

For their ruling or need for clarification.

Can you charge in Fla for time on task?!
 
Since you are allowed to charge reasonable costs for providing records, hire a temp for 3 months.
 
Send it to your city attorney

And State attorney that covers open records

For their ruling or need for clarification.
 
Here it would need to be request to the City Clerk under the "Request for open records law" The Clerk should provide the requestee a cost associated with the search and a timeframe. At that point the requestee would need to fork over some cash for the records if known or actual time for searching will be calculated and payment requested prior to receiving the docs.

Small request like a permit or file doc is usually no big deal and I'll oblige accordingly. But some of these yahoos are clueless in what they're actually needing so they'll just say the whole file.

Jar, since you went paperless, does that help you any vs the old school paper docs?
 
cda said:
Send it to your city attorney

And State attorney that covers open records

For their ruling or need for clarification.

Can you charge in Fla for time on task?!
Click to expand...
Yes we can charge based on the lowest paid person in the department if it takes more than 30 minutes.
 
Send it to your city attorney

And State attorney that covers open records

For their ruling or need for clarification.
 
You can also get a bid quote from a licensed and bonded reprographics company. Throw in a little bit of your own time, to point that reprographics company to the appropriate stack of file boxes.
 
You may want to speak with them to make sure what they really want is a copy of all your permit records. Or see if they can clarify what exactly they are looking for.
 
Provide them location of data. Print out all the owner addresses in the city.
 
@ @ > >

Rembo,

IMO, ...** ORinspector ** has it correctly in Post # 16.

Clarify the request first, then start figuring the cost
associated with it.

Remember, ...you can only eat the elephant one bite
at a time.

< < @ @
 
In Mass. we are not obliged to create records or list that do not exist. My system can create list of permits, be we do not therefore do not have to create the list if requested.

Like others if the request is going take more than a few munites we can provide an estimate of the total charges, accept payment then provide the records
 
I had a request for all of the permits that were ever issued on a large shopping center. The property owner was the one asking for the copies. I was a one man shop so I had to copy the files myself in any spare time. I made it clear that the cost was twenty-five cents per page and it would take a few weeks. I called the guy when I was done and he never came to get the copies. Hundreds of copies. Several years later he came to the office for something else. I told him that he owed the city a $100 for copies...which he paid. Then he asked for those copies. I didn't have the copies. It was several years later and the copies had been tossed out.

The moral of the story is, "Get the money up front."
 
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Had a request of documents on all houses built in the last 10 years once. We just piled all the boxes of files for the last ten years on a big table and said here you are. He just took photos of the applications. I think he was just a sales person.
 
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