On Feb. 4, I sent City Communications Director Tamara Fountain a request:
We are looking into doing a story on the city’s public record system. I would like to come over to city hall interview Jane and see how the new system works.
And I waited, and I waited, and I waited.
On Saturday, Feb. 16 at 5 p.m., I got this reply from Ms. Fountain:
We are working on open house where all media can review the public records system. We should have invite out mid week.
Twelve days for a very simple request for an interview that will take about 10-15 minutes. And now that request has been turned into a media event.
We have heard over the past few months several complaints about the city’s new public records system. We have requests that are now over a month old –one of which is a report on the outstanding requests in the system as of Dec. 31, 2013. So we can’t even get a list of requests–something which I was told at the last Morning with the Mayor the system could provide.
The current system is much slower the old one and lightyears behind the system under City Manager Al Coby.
A cynic might believe the mayor doesn’t want the public to get its records.
What are your experiences with the city’s new system? Email me your experiences and any outstanding requests you may have. My email is rick@inweekly.net.