Princeton received 492 public information requests from January through September, about 55 a month, and 71 of them were still open on Sept. 30, according to a presentation prepared for the City Council's Oct. 26 work session.
The item, presented by Records Clerk Maria Palmer, is informational, and no vote is planned. It opens the pre-council session at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, at the Princeton Municipal Center, 2000 E. Princeton Drive.
The numbers
Of the 492 requests, 421 had been completed. Monthly volume ran from 40 in February to 70 in April, with 62 arriving in September.
The slides break down how requests turned out:
- Records were released for 269 requests.
- The city had no responsive records for 108.
- 44 were withdrawn.
- 71 were pending or in progress.
Ninety requests needed legal review, 66 needed clarification from the person asking, 63 were sent to the Texas attorney general and 13 drew cost estimates.
Where the work lands
A memo from City Secretary Amber Anderson says her office coordinates every request through GovQA, a tracking system, assigns record searches to departments and works with the city attorney when information may be redacted or withheld or an attorney general ruling is needed. Departments are expected to hand over records as they exist and not create new ones to answer a request, the memo says.
The presentation says request counts understate the workload, since one request can reach several departments and systems. It estimates monthly staff time on requests at up to 50 hours in Development Services, up to 35 in Public Works, 30 in information technology and 20 to 30 in Finance.
