The city of Ventura responds to public records requests in a timely fashion 92 percent of the time, the Ventura County Grand Jury found.
It is a "system that serves the community well," notes the panel's 14-page report, released this week.
The California Public Records Act sets rules for information that must be available and accessible to the public and governs open meetings to ensure government work and spending is transparent.
The grand jury, which investigates various practices by government agencies, began looking at the issue after receiving complaints by several residents. The 19-member panel found that Ventura's 92 percent response rate in fiscal year 2015 had improved over the previous year, when it was 85 percent.
However, that figure only captured requests into COMCATE, the software system that processes and tracks requests submitted online. That prompted the jury to recommend developing a system that reflected every public records request "without regard to origin."
The panel also suggested the city put into place a way to better track correspondence between the requestor and officials, through COMCATE, after the initial request, and update its policies and procedures pertaining to public records. That document was last updated in 2012 and is "required to be reviewed every two years," the report notes.
Want to submit a public records request? Go to cityofventura.net/MVA
May 6, 2016
Ventura County Star
By Arlene Martinez
No comments:
Post a Comment