CITY OF SANTA ROSA
2022 Public Records Report
Under Chapter 1-10 Open Government, Article 3 of the Santa Rosa City Code, “the Public Records Coordinator shall prepare a tally and report of all record requests brought before it.
The report shall, at a minimum, identify the total number of requests, nature of the requests, number of requests fulfilled, number of requests unfilled, and the reason they were not filled.”
The 2022 report is the first Public Records Report being presented since the adoption of the Open Government Ordinance in 2020 establishing this requirement within City Code. In addition to the minimum requirements identified in City Code, the City Clerk, as the Public Record Coordinator, has provided additional information related to a year over year look back at the volume of Public Records request received over the last 4 years.
Types of Requests
o City Clerk – Legislation, eDiscovery, Form 700, historical records o CAO – Generally assigned for exemption review
o CMO – Contracts managed by CMO
o CIRO – Requests from News sources, assigned as an FYI o Finance – Unclaimed monies, new business list, business license, some contracts unless specifically managed by other departments
o Fire – Fire incident reports, CUPA & Hazmat related records, fire inspection reports, fire code violations, fire permits
o Housing & Community Services – Rental assistance reports, Mobile home records, Housing allocation plans
o HR – Employment contracts, salary list
o IT – Network back ups, city held camera footage
o PED – Building plans, building permits, site plans, conditional use permits, code enforcement records, soil reports, encroachment permits, parcel maps, certificate of occupancy, grading permits, easement plans, short-term rental documentation o Police – Police reports, CAD logs, Officer involved incidents reports, transparency records
o Rec & Parks – park maintenance records, park plans, swimming pool chemical logs o TPW – CIP project documents, traffic engineering studies, bus footage, road maintenance records, traffic signal timing reports
o Water – Utility permit, water usage
Non-releasable records
Draft documents, Certified payroll records, bank plans, deliberative process, attorney client privilege or attorney work product, Open law enforcement investigations, law enforcement officer personal contact info, records retentions schedule, personal contact/complainant info, appraisals are exempt from disclosure per specific Government Codes
Ex: The requested records have been withheld or redacted pursuant to California Government Code § 7927.700 [medical, personnel, etc. which would cause an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy], § 7927.705 [other records that may be exempt pursuant to federal or state law], and § 7923.600 [records of complaints to, or investigations conducted by...any state or local police agency], Haynie v. Superior Court (2001) 26 Cal.4th 1061, 1071.
Request Withdrawn
Generally, requests are withdrawn because a requester found the records on their own or decided they did not need them anymore.
4 Year Snapshot
1321
1514
959 970
0 200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
2022 2021 2020 2019
Total Requests Per Year
692
569
60 956
509
49 600
326
33 632
275
63 0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Requests Per Year