Twentynine Palms council directs city manager to draft letter backing AB 1821 on public-records timing

The Twentynine Palms City Council voted unanimously to direct the city manager to draft a letter of support for Assembly Bill 1821, a measure that would change the Public Records Act response timeframe from 10 calendar days to 10 working days.

City Manager (unnamed in the record) briefed the council on the rationale: municipalities face increasing volumes and complexity of public-records requests while revenue sources that helped offset compliance costs have diminished. The manager told the council staff will begin tracking the time required to process requests to show the public the true cost of fulfilling records demands. He said the change to 10 working days is intended to recognize that many local offices do not operate on weekends.

Local journalist Cindy Bernard, editor of the Desert Trumpet, urged the council to ensure staff apply a "reasonable search" standard when searching city email and records. Bernard said the newspaper had filed a request tied to a recent solar project and alleged that, in a staff email, the city sought exact-keyword matches rather than a reasonable search; she asked the council to direct staff to honor an anticipated production date. "The public has a right to know the story behind those donations," Bernard said, describing delays in the paper's request process.

Councilmembers agreed to have the city manager draft the letter in support of AB 1821 and to monitor record-processing time. The motion passed on a unanimous roll call.