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Committee lowers public‑records 'extensive' threshold from 4 to 2 hours and asks staff to publish cost guidance
Summary
Doctor Barnes warned of repeated, granular public‑records requests that strain staff time and proposed publishing average costs and reducing the special‑service charge threshold. The committee voted to change the threshold from 4 to 2 hours in two places and asked Barnes to prepare cost estimates for the full board vote.
Doctor Barnes described an instance in which an agency submitted 17 segmented public‑records requests to avoid fee thresholds and argued the district needs clearer guidance on special service charges. "We had an agency ... put in 17 records requests all at once ... they broke them into small little pieces, so that no individual request went over 4 hours," Barnes said, explaining the operational burden and the need for transparent cost guidance on the public records webpage.
After discussion about preserving transparency while protecting staff time and considering statutory language, a motion was made to change the policy language in two places from 4 hours to 2 hours to trigger special‑service charges. The committee approved that motion by voice vote and directed Barnes to post average cost information and bring a draft with detailed cost elements for board review before the next meeting.
