pages: OpenGovernmentCommission/2021-05-03.pdf, 10
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OpenGovernmentCommission | 2021-05-03 | 10 | In response to Vice Chair Shabazz's inquiry, Chair Tilos stated the item was already presented to the OGC and a couple issues were found, mainly the records were not provided, but was resolved through an OGC hearing. The City Clerk stated the item returned in order to provide more clarity on the complaints filed and to also include additional Citywide information. Vice Chair Shabazz stated the NextRequest program is pretty cool; it is used at the City of Oakland and BART; his hope is not to have the same legal challenges with public records that Oakland is having; what stood out to him was the amount of requests the Alameda Police Department (APD) received that were not being tracked; inquired what the method is for the APD to get the public record requests and why are they not being tracked. The City Clerk responded anything APD produces is categorized; stated the Department confirms they responded; records that were denied was not part of their tracking system; the concept came from the previous Commission discussion. In response to Vice Chair Shabazz's inquiry, the City Clerk stated anything the City Attorney's office receives is separately tracked on the spreadsheet provided, regardless of the originating Department. Commissioner Chen inquired why the APD does not track responses and whether they should be required to do so. The City Clerk responded it was not being done before and was a new request from the OGC. In response to Commissioner Chen's inquiry, the City Clerk stated APD has a completely separate set of rules regarding PRAs than everyone else; the Fire Department has a few separate rules as well, but the APD has a very complex and separate records program; at this point, they will not be using NextRequest. Commissioner Chen stated it is unfortunate because of the need for transparency and rebuilding trust with the APD. The Assistant City Attorney stated the question from the OGC was how the various departments track PRAs; each department is required, as custodians of their records, to respond to records requests and track the requests as they see fit; there is not a specific requirement in terms of tracking. Commissioner LoPilato inquired whether the date the PRA was referred to the City Attorney's office always corresponds with the date the request was received. The City Clerk responded most of the requests she refers to the City Attorney's office are Meeting of the Open Government Commission May 3, 2021 10 | OpenGovernmentCommission/2021-05-03.pdf |