[Press Release] : FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: City of Columbia Takes Steps to Improve Transparency and Responses to Records Requests

[Press Releases]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Steven Sapp, Director of Community Relations
(573) 874-7257

City of Columbia Takes Steps to Improve Transparency and Responses to Records Requests

COLUMBIA, MO (August 11, 2016) - On Monday, August 1, the Columbia City Council unanimously passed Council Bill 187-16 relating to transparency in government.  


 

"Access to open public records is a fundamental expectation that engenders public confidence and trust in our government," said Mayor Brian Treece. "These important steps will help ensure the city's policy and practice is in full compliance with the letter and spirit of the Sunshine law, as well as recent case law."

 

Inclusion of transparency policies in the City Codes instills in employees the expectations that requests for information do not need to be submitted in writing nor does a request for information need to contain words such as “sunshine request”, “open records request”, “public records request” or any similar such wording. 

 

To ensure the city continues to provide timely and accurate responses to requests for information, the Community Relations Department will provide oversight of records requests and provide assistance to the department records custodians. 

 

Highlights of some enhancements which are in the process of being implemented include:

 



In the coming months, a software solution will be installed and utilized which will allow, for the first time, tracking of requests, automation to streamline the request process and automated reporting to ensure requests, responses, estimates and costs are all tracked in a centralized system. 


 



The 2009 records policy is under a full review and revision


 



Records custodians in all departments will begin to receive meaningful training from both internal and external sources including:





Missouri Attorney General's Office


City Law Department



 

In addition, the City of Columbia remains committed to exploring and implementing policy and software solutions which would provide more open data available to citizens via the CoMo.gov website and potentially through computer kiosks for those with no computer or internet access. 



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