CITY OF PACIFICA
COUNCIL AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT
10/24/2022
1 SUBJECT:
Response to San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury Report Titled "A Delicate Balance Between Knowledge and Power: Government Transparency and the Public's Right to Know" RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Move to approve the response to San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury Report Titled "A Delicate Balance Between Knowledge and Power: Government Transparency and the Public's Right to Know".
STAFF CONTACT:
Sarah Coffey, City Clerk
(650) 738-7307
[email protected]
BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION:
Early in California’s history, the California Constitution established grand juries in each county.
The California Penal Code provides for the formation of civil grand juries and their powers and duties. With respect to public agencies, grand juries are authorized to “Investigate and report upon the operations, accounts and records of the officers, departments, functions, and the method or systems of performing the duties of any such city or joint powers agency and make such recommendations as it may deem proper and fit” (California Penal Code Section 925a).
Within 90 days after the Grand Jury submits a report regarding the operations of any public agency, the “Governing body of the public agency shall comment to the presiding judge of the Superior Court on the findings and recommendations pertaining to matters under the control of the governing body…” (California Penal Code Section 933 (c)).
On August 18, 2022, the City of Pacifica received the formal Grand Jury Report entitled, "A Delicate Balance between Knowledge and Power: Government Transparency and the Public’s Right to Know" dated August 9, 2022 (Attachment A). The City of Pacifica's response is due no later than November 9, 2022 and requires approval by the City Council at a public meeting. The city's response for Council consideration is attached in Attachment B.
The California Public Records Act (PRA) requires that inspection or disclosure of governmental records be available to the public upon request. The PRA’s purpose is to promote government transparency in California.
The San Mateo County Grand Jury researched how the cities in San Mateo County meet the requirements of the California Public Records Act. The 2021-2022 San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury sought to understand how San Mateo County’s 20 cities respond to PRA requests, including: cities’ policies and procedures for handling requests; the types of records requests they receive; the training of key employees, elected officials and appointed officials about PRArelated matters; and how legal changes may impact cities with regard to fulfilling PRA requests.
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The Grand Jury began by sending a survey to the 20 cities managers in the County with questions related to the processing of public records requests and conducted follow-up interviews with representatives of all 20 cities to gather additional information. The Grand Jury reviewed city websites with respect to information and provisions made for submission and response to public records requests. They reviewed the workflow and methods of tracking of public records requests used by cities, volumes of public records requests received by cities, subjects of requested records, and the burden on cities of time-consuming requests. They also reviewed methods used by cities for increasing efficiency in records requests processing and records management policies and practices that facilitate effective compliance with the PRA.
Through their research, the Grand Jury found that the City of San Mateo reported a unique method for encouraging city staff in one element of the effective management of public records by holding a “Records Clean Up Day” which tasked employees with reducing the number of duplicate records, preparing records for off-site storage, imaging and indexing electronic records, and identifying electronic records eligible for destruction in accordance with the city’s records retention schedules. The Grand Jury concluded with one of their recommendations to all other cities in San Mateo County that by June 30, 2023, the city council should direct city staff to review and consider adopting a records management practice analogous to the City of San Mateo’s “Records Clean Up Day.”
Further detail on the background, investigation and conclusions of the Grand Jury related to this topic are included in the copy of the Grand Jury Report entitled, “A Delicate Balance Between Knowledge and Power: Government Transparency and the Public’s Right to Know” attached as Attachment A.
At the conclusion of the Grand Jury’s investigation and report, they made five categories of Findings and five categories of Recommendations and provided a table to indicate which findings and recommendations were applicable to each city within the County.
The Findings of the Grand Jury were detailed as follows:
F1. The city has no written documentation of its PRA policy and internal procedures, making it more likely that requests could be handled inconsistently. (not applicable to Pacifica)
F2. The City uses a commercially available software application that includes a web portal enabling the public to easily request records and track their disposition. (Response requested from Pacifica)
F3. Information about how to access public records requires multiple clicks to find on the city’s website, which hinders the public’s access to public records. (not applicable to Pacifica)
F4. The City of San Mateo implements a Records Cleanup Day with the purposed of increasing employee understanding of the need to effectively maintain public records, thereby improving PRA request responsiveness. (not applicable to Pacifica) F5. The city has no PRA request form online, making public access to public records less efficient. (not applicable to Pacifica)
The Recommendations of the Grand Jury were detailed as follows:
R1. The city council should direct city staff to consider and report back by June 30, 2023, Pacifica City Council 3
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on the creation of a written PRA policy or procedures document for circulation to all relevant staff. (not applicable to Pacifica)
R2. The city council should direct city staff to consider performing a cost/benefit analysis and report back by September 1, 2023, on the purchase of commercially available public records request software. (not applicable to Pacifica)
R3. By June 30, 2023, the city council should consider directing city staff to place information about how to access public records on the home page of the city’s official website. (not applicable to Pacifica)
R4. By June 30, 2023, the city council should direct staff to review and consider adopting a records management practice analogous to the City of San Mateo’s “Records Cleanup Day.” (Response requested from Pacifica)
R5. By June 30, 2023, the city council should direct city staff to create, on the city clerk’s page of its website, a submittable PRA request form. (not applicable to Pacifica) The following are the City's responses to the Grand Jury Report Findings and Recommendations that are applicable to Pacifica.
Response to Grand Jury Findings:
Pursuant to Penal Code Section 933.05, the Grand Jury requested a response from Pacifica for the following Finding:
F2. The City uses a commercially available software application that includes a web portal enabling the public to easily request records and track their disposition.
Response to F2. The City agrees with the finding.
Response to Grand Jury Recommendations:
Pursuant to Penal Code Section 933.05, the Grand Jury requested a response from Pacifica for the following Recommendation:
R4. By June 30, 2023, the city council should direct staff to review and consider adopting a records management practice analogous to the City of San Mateo’s “Records Cleanup Day.”
Response to R4. This recommendation has not yet been implemented, but will be implemented by June 30, 2023, with the city council directing staff to review and consider adopting a records management practice analogous to the City of San Mateo’s “Records Cleanup Day.” Thereafter, city staff would review a records management practice consistent with the City of Pacifica’s Administrative Policy No. 8 “Records Management and Information Management Program Policy” in which the City Clerk leads outreach to city departments and staff to emphasize a commitment to educate and facilitate coordinated activities to document the annual clean-up, organization and purging of records in accordance with the City of Pacifica Record Retention Schedules.
The City of Pacifica’s goal will be analogous to the City of San Mateo’s “Records Cleanup Day” as illustrated in Appendix F of the Grand Jury Report, “A Delicate Balance Pacifica City Council 4
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between Knowledge and Power: Government Transparency and the Public’s Right to Know.” The City of Pacifica agrees that the practice of an annual “Records Cleanup Day” and related activities emphasizes the importance of effective records management practices in a supportive environment that the agency conducts annually while also encouraging practices in routine records management activities that make the annual practice less burdensome.
The response letter to the Grand Jury for Council’s consideration for approval and authorization to transmit is attached in Attachment B.
Conclusions Based on Grand Jury Report Findings and Recommendations:
Based on the above findings and recommendations by the Grand Jury and how they are applied to Pacifica, the city notes that the Grand Jury did not find any significant areas of concern with respect to the areas researched regarding the City of Pacifica’s processes and accessibility with respect to public records requests. The city has explored and made process changes to more efficiently manage the increasing volumes of requests, including launching the NextRequest public records request portal in September 2021 for submission, tracking, processing and responses to public records requests. The increased volume of public records requests and the scope of some requests that are complex and/or time-consuming in nature have presented challenges and required rolling responses to requests in some instances; however, the city strives to review and respond to all public records requests in a reasonable timeframe and to comply with the requirements under the California Public Records Act and has taken steps to improve upon the efficiency of processing, tracking and responding to public records requests through the use of a commercially available web-based platform (NextRequest).
ALTERNATIVE ACTION:
Decline to accept the response to the San Mateo Civil Grand Jury and provide additional direction to staff.
RELATION TO CITY COUNCIL GOALS AND WORK PLAN:
Approval of the response is consistent with the following Council adopted Goals:
• An Engaged Community: includes taking actions to restore trust in city government, expanding communication and building community.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The fiscal impact of accepting this report and implementing the recommendations are minimal and can be addressed with budgeted resources.
ORIGINATED BY:
City Clerk
ATTACHMENT LIST:
Attachment A: Grand Jury Report "A Delicate Balance between Knowledge and Power:
Government Transparency and the Public’s Right to Know"(PDF) Attachment B: City's Response to Grand Jury Report (PDF)