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File Number: 19-645 <br />Analysis <br />Processing Requests <br />Ideally, a requesting party would fill out the City’s standard CPRA request form. If the request is <br />made orally, staff will offer and provide the City’s standard form and encourage the requesting <br />party to fill it out. If the requesting party is unwilling to reduce its CPRA request to writing, staff <br />documents the request to the best of its ability on the City standard form. Staff sends a written <br />confirmation of the oral request to the requesting party. This gives the requesting party the ability <br />to correct any misunderstanding related to their request and provides the City with written <br />confirmation of the request. <br />The City Clerk’s office is responsible for coordinating and tracking all CPRA requests received <br />by the City. The City Clerk’s office coordinates the ten day written response to the requesting <br />party. <br />The gathering of the responsive records includes the City Clerk working with City staff gathering <br />the documents responsive to the request. Requests that seek a large volume of records or <br />oversized documents may require additional attention, time, and facilities. Actual disclosure of the <br />records may depend on when the records are assembled and whether it requires further review <br />from various departments. If the request is particularly voluminous, the City may provide such <br />records in batches, based on reasonable processing times and available staff resources. <br />In order to efficiently manage and process records requests, the City Clerk keeps a file of all <br />requests processed under the California Public Records Act. The file includes but is not limited <br />to, responses, general descriptions of the records provided, and a copy of the records disclosed <br />in response to each request (Attachment 1). <br />Challenges surrounding the current process include the multi-departmental nature of requests and <br />ensuring all communication is channeled through the City Clerk’s Division to enable consistent <br />answers and the elimination of duplicative effort. In addition, at this time the City does not have <br />an automated tracking system to monitor progress of CPRA requests or a scheduling mechanism <br />that allows for due date reminders. In addition, the City currently uses Adobe Pro with optical <br />character recognition (OCR) for redaction that requires additional time in resolving issues with <br />scanned documents. <br />Finally, several Departments complete simple CPRA requests internally without including the City <br />Clerk because they understand current staff resources in the City Clerk’s Office are not sufficient <br />to handle the volume of work. This can cause confusion about who is responsible for the response <br />and whether the timelines have been met. <br />Associated Time and Cost <br />Processing CPRA requests takes time. In most cases, there is no legal ability to charge staff <br />time for CPRA requests; thus the cost must be absorbed by the City. However, the City can <br />recover costs for copying, producing or creating a record that does not currently exist. In addition, <br />paper copies may be available at a cost of ten cent ($0.10) per page, and the City may charge a <br />Page 2 City of San Leandro Printed on 12/10/2019 <br />13