A. Reasonable Notice That Request Is for Public Records. . A requestor must give an agency reasonable notice that the request is being made pursuant to the Act.

B. Identifiable Record. A requestor must request an “identifiable record” or “class of records” before an agency must respond to it. An “identifiable record” is one that agency staff can reasonably locate. Public records requests are not interrogatories. An agency is not required to conduct legal research for a requestor. When an agency receives a request for records “relating to” or similar request, it should seek clarification of the request from the requestor.

C. “Overbroad” Requests. An agency cannot deny a request for identifiable public records based solely on the basis that the request is overbroad. However, if such a request is not for identifiable records or otherwise is not proper, the request can still be denied. A request for all or substantially all records prepared, owned, used, or retained by the city is not a valid request for identifiable records. A request for all records regarding a particular topic or containing a particular keyword is a valid request.

D. “Bot” Requests. The city may deny a bot request that is one of multiple requests from the same requestor to the city within a 24-hour period if the city establishes that responding to the multiple requests would cause excessive interference with other essential functions of the city. For purposes of this subsection, “bot request” means a request for public records that the city reasonably believes was automatically generated by a computer program or script.

E. Documenting Compliance. The city may number-stamp or number-label paper records provided to a requestor to document which records were provided. The city may also keep a copy of the numbered records so either the agency or requestor can later determine which records were or were not provided. If memorializing which specific documents were offered for inspection is impractical, the city may document which records were provided for inspection by making an index or list of the files or records made available for inspection. (Ord. 1465 § 1 (Exh. A), 2021; Ord. 1371 § 1 (Exh. A), 2017; Ord. 1094 § 1, 2007).