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Council volunteers to review 2,500 Brentwood records tied to Webster floodplain questions
Summary
Council members and staff noted a Sunshine request returned roughly 2,500 unindexed documents from Brentwood relating to floodplain management; volunteers from the council will review recent records and narrow the set for relevance.
Council members said the city received a Sunshine request result from Brentwood that produced roughly 2,500 documents, many unindexed, related to floodplain management and prior land actions.
“There are 2,500 of them, it looks like. They are in no order whatsoever,” Mayor Arnold said during the June 17 work session. Council members and staff discussed how to process the records and whether councilors would volunteer to review the set. The mayor said she was willing to spend time reviewing the documents and asked who else would volunteer.
Staff noted many of the records date back to 2006 and suggested focusing review on the most relevant recent years; council members proposed looking back to the date when the city transferred the small piece of land in question to establish a relevant timeframe. Council members suggested dividing the records among volunteers and using bates-numbering or an Excel index to track who had reviewed which records.
“I'm willing to spend some time going through them,” the mayor said, and council members asked that the volunteer group coordinate a review session and keep it separate from staff time. Staff confirmed the documents are uploaded and accessible electronically, which will ease the review process.
Council did not take formal action but directed interested council members to identify themselves so the review can move forward. The council also said it would not invite staff to the volunteer review session; if staff are to be involved, it would be on separate city time and with appropriate notification.
