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Saratoga council endorses FOIL/document control upgrades as requests climb
Summary
City leaders discussed automating FOIL/document workflows and new tools to speed responses after rising public‑record requests; the mayor reported FOIL requests rising year‑to‑date and staff described planned technical changes and training.
City officials described plans to modernize the city's FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) and records‑management workflows to address growing request volumes.
The accounts commissioner and city clerk said the city will expand use of existing tools (including Barracuda and other data‑capture tools) to automate gathering and make documents available for download, which officials said could eliminate a large share of routine FOIL requests. The city clerk noted the approach has precedent in neighboring municipalities and is intended to improve responsiveness while preserving the city attorney’s role in applying exemptions.
Mayor John Safford provided FOIL counts to illustrate the workload: 437 FOIL requests on Aug. 29 last year, 521 as of Aug. 29 this year, and an end‑of‑year projection that could approach 1,000 requests. IT staff and the accounts office said the plan will include workflow changes and training to allow staff to leverage automated searches and public downloads for common document types.
