by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Thunder is not often a welcome visitor to most areas, but the City’s Ethics Commission was pleased Wednesday that Mayor John Peyton decided to “steal” its thunder.
The regular meeting of the Legislative Subcommittee of the City’s Ethics Commission took place Wednesday at City Hall, and the committee continued to discuss the City’s public records request process and its role in hearing citizen’s complaints regarding access to public records.
“(Ethics Officer Carla Miller) and I were thinking about recommending that this committee recommend to the Ethics Commission that there be some point person for the process,” said Braxton Gillam, chair of the subcommittee, in regards to public records requests. “One of the problems we heard from citizens at the last meeting was there were records requests from multiple citizens for a group of records and it got passed from person to person and never really found a home. When they got tired of (the request), they just passed it to the next person.”
Gillam and Miller expressed this problem to Peyton and City Council President Ronnie Fussell before the 5 p.m. meeting, and Gillam was somewhat pleased with the response.
“Their response, in short order, was that the idea made sense,” said Gillam. “We were going to suggest a solution or some betterment to the process, but it seems that the mayor’s office has sort of stolen our thunder.”
The City’s Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Kerri Stewart attended the meeting to present a letter from Peyton addressing the issues the Ethics Commission has been investigating, and she also answered questions about the public records request process.
“I appreciate your subcommittee taking on this sensitive issue,” Stewart read from Peyton’s letter. “At times, citizens feel as though they have no recourse for their concerns and your committee has helped address them.”
The letter continued with an explanation of the City’s continuing efforts to meet the public records needs of the community.
“We have tried to provide continuous improvements to our existing processes for responding to public records requests,” Stewart continued. “The goal has been to achieve the utmost transparency and timeliness for any response from any source.”
The City utilizes its information phone system 630-CITY and Web site, www.ecare.coj.net, to help citizens find the public information they are searching for. The Web site does ask for name and address when filling out a public records request online, but citizens don’t need to fill out the information.
“That information helps speed up the process when someone is requesting information,” said Misty Skipper, director of communications for the City. “We can get people information faster if we know where to send it.”
Skipper overseas the public records request process and will work with the Ethics Office and Inspector General to respond to problems that may arise with the system.
“We will include an ‘appeal’ procedure for citizens who feel as though they have not been dealt with fairly in the process,” Peyton stated in his letter. “My director of communications will field any concerns related to public records requests and will work with the Ethics Office and Inspector General to ensure that any request is addressed in as transparent and timely manner as possible.”
This response was spurred by Ethics Commission’s investigation of public records requests made by Folio Weekly for information on the renovations of Jacksonville Municipal Stadium prior to the Jacksonville Jaguars’ arrival and the Super Bowl Host Committee records. The City resolved the dispute with Folio Weekly writer Marvin Edwards in August, 2008 by paying him $5,000 for legal fees he incurred during the request process. Recently, before the Legislative Subcommittee, the City’s Chief Deputy General Counsel Cindy Laquidara admitted that the Office of General Counsel “dropped the ball” in that case by having too many people involved with processing the request.
The handling of the records requests from Folio Weekly caused the City to address problems that occurred during the process, but Miller felt that the incident was more the exception than the rule.
“The City wasn’t the problem when we asked for complaints about access to public records,” said Miller. “Most of the public records complaints people sent in dealt with the Sheriff’s Office.”
The people in attendance were pleased with the news from the mayor’s office, but they all agreed the process for providing access to public records was a work in progress.
“We are not trying to say we have a perfect system,” said Stewart. “It’s a human process and there will be breakdowns. Hopefully, we will get those answers in a more timely manner.”
An exercise in access
Daily Record reporter Joe Wilhelm Jr. submitted a public records request just as any average citizen would, utilizing the City’s Web site, www.coj.net and here is what he found.
• Step 1 – Went to ecare.coj.net
• Clicked request service/register a complaint
• Clicked request service near bottom of page
• Searched by category-chose public records request
• Asked for mayor’s letter sent to Ethics Commission on April 8 in comment box.
The comment box should be filled in with any details on how a user would want to handle the request.
If you don’t want to list your personal information, write “anonymous” and “will call” or “pick up document” at City Hall. This helps the researcher process the info.
• I chose to use John Doe information, but that is a waste of time for you and the researcher because they will try to locate “1 Main Street” if you list it as your address.
• Another problem with this page, I tried to move on to the next page after adding my search information by clicking on “next” on the right side near the bottom of the screen. It wouldn’t let me advance until I moved the cursor over to the “Issue Description” text box and clicked on the words “Public Records Request.”
• After doing so, the sentence “I want copies of the following public records,” appears in blue text beneath the “Issue Description” box. This allows access to the next page.
• Step 2 — Add info about where it happened. I listed City Hall’s address since the mayor wrote the letter.
• Step 3 — Contact information. Users are not required to fill this out, but an e-mail address can help the user get information quicker. I made up a fake Internet e-mail account that I could access to receive the information. If the user doesn’t want to reveal their identity, type “anonymous” in the name box.
The user has a report of all their information once the process is complete. This report has an issue number that is necessary to check the status of the request at ecare.coj.net. Standard time for first action is listed as a day and completion is estimated at two months. But one of my requests was completed in a day and the other is being researched.
356-2466