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City solicitor: right-to-know requests and litigation workload have surged; office seeks new RTK attorney and expanded lien specialist duties
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Summary
City Solicitor Neil Grover told council the law bureau is seeing a steep rise in right-to-know (RTK) requests, cited 758 requests received by mid‑afternoon, and recommended hiring a dedicated RTK attorney and expanding lien‑specialist duties to remediate historical records and support litigation.
Neil Anthony Nicholas Grover, the city solicitor, told the budget committee that public‑records requests and related appeals have ballooned and are consuming substantial staff time. "At 03:00 this afternoon, we had 758 right to knows," Grover said, describing a persistent and time‑consuming flow of requests that often require exemptions logs, redactions and court filings.
Grover asked council to approve a right‑to‑know attorney in the law bureau’s 2026 staffing plan, saying dedicated litigation support would reduce the administrative burden on other legal work and speed responses to the Office of Open Records appeals. He also proposed expanding the lien specialist’s duties to correct historical lien records — work Grover said would improve the Munis transition and the city’s accounting of collectible debts.
He added that the law bureau has handled a high volume of contracts, subpoenas and hearings in 2025 and that litigation complexity has been increasing, including cases touching public‑records and property-title issues. The office also plans a final auction of artifacts currently in city possession, which Grover said would both clear stored material and return revenue to the city.
Council questions focused on the RTK cost and process, whether a dedicated attorney would reduce appeal-driven costs, and the legal relationship between council and the solicitor’s office. Grover said the solicitor’s office remains the city’s statutory legal arm but supported collaborative options such as a council counsel or liaison to assist drafting and policy work.
Why it matters: higher RTK volume can increase litigation exposure and drive unbudgeted legal expenses. Grover cautioned that rising request complexity — including multi-topic and AI‑generated requests — is stretching staff and increasing the need for specialized personnel and digitization to reduce manual search burdens.
Next steps: Grover said the RTK attorney position is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2026 and the law bureau will pursue records digitization and improved contract-management tools to reduce future processing time.
