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Town clerk reports surge in FOIL requests — over 500 through September; staff time burden flagged
Summary
The town clerk told the Oct. 22 workshop the town received more than 500 FOIL requests from January through September 2025, creating significant staff workload; the clerk and board discussed automating processing to reduce paper handling and hours.
At the Oct. 22 budget workshop the town clerk told the board the clerk’s office has processed "over 500 FOIL requests" through Sept. 30, 2025, an unusually high volume that consumes substantial staff time.
"As of September 30th, I want to say we've had over 500 FOIL requests in the town," the clerk said, and noted other towns reported far fewer requests over a similar period. Board members and the controller discussed the time and cost implications — the clerk said many requests take two or more staff hours to process and that the cumulative work is close to a full‑time position when aggregated.
The clerk said the office had evaluated but chosen not to implement an automation tool this year; board members encouraged revisiting options for a more digital, less paper‑intensive FOIL workflow to reduce staff time and copying costs. The controller agreed to work with the clerk to estimate costs and potential savings.
No formal action was taken; the issue was identified as a candidate for process improvement and potential budget allocation or software procurement in a later work session.
