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Council questions records-request fees, police request volumes and digital security
Summary
Council members pressed staff on requester counts, average costs, police-records workload and use of AI; staff said electronic copies are free but labor charges apply for extensive searches, police handle 6,000–8,000 requests annually, and CIO Kishnel Penney said Laserfiche is stored on-premises with security measures in place.
Council members asked for more granular data about who files records requests and how fees are assessed. City staff said most electronic requests are provided free but "we also do charge for labor" when searches exceed statutory thresholds or require extensive review; the $15 hourly figure from the Public Information Act was cited as the base labor rate used to estimate charges for extensive searches.
Council members asked whether the city can use AI or bots to handle routine inquiries. Staff and department representatives said limited automation is used—for example, AI-assisted redaction of license plates—but human review remains necessary for sensitive records. The police representative said the police department handles a much higher volume of requests because of audio-visual records and estimated about "6 to 8,000" police-related requests a year; staff credited a specialized team for processing those records.
On digitization and records retention, staff said the city has used Laserfiche (an electronic records program) since 2009 and that "majority of our records are electronic." Deputy City Secretary Kristen Downs said retention for open-records request metadata is two years in the system. CIO Kishnel Penney said the city keeps Laserfiche on-premises and maintains security around cloud storage used for some documents.
