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Board member presses for OPRA log and clarity on use of attorneys and email votes; business administrator describes folder-based system
Summary
A board member asked whether the district maintains a searchable OPRA log, whether requests are routinely routed to outside attorneys for redaction, and whether board members are being asked to decide bills by email; the business administrator said he keeps a folder-based log, forwards complex redactions to attorneys, and that ad-hoc email directions have occurred.
A board member asked for clarity about the district’s handling of public-records (OPRA) requests and whether the administration uses email to obtain board direction on paying bills.
The questioner said the district needs a unique identifier and an accessible log that shows when OPRA requests arrive and when they are fulfilled. The business administrator said he maintains a dated folder for each request as his operational log and that he forwards requests that require redaction or legal review to outside counsel. He estimated most requests involve emails and documents and said that easier, directly accessible documents can be provided without counsel review.
The board member also raised concerns that some interim decisions (for example, routing a request to a lower-cost attorney firm or giving direction on paying bills) had been made via email between meetings, which she said may improperly ask individual board members to exercise decision-making power outside of a public meeting. The administrator said he would have to compile folder dates to answer how many requests arrived and were fulfilled in a period and that pulling that information would require manual review of individual folders.
Next steps: the board asked the administration to provide clearer documentation of the OPRA log and to follow up on whether a centralized, sortable log can be maintained; the discussion will continue at a future meeting.
