CITY OF SANTA ROSA
2025 PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS REPORT
1 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.” In addition to the minimum requirements identified in City Code, the City Clerk, as the Public Records Coordinator, has provided additional information related to a year over year look back at the volume of Public Records request received over the last 5 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 Count of Open Count of Fulfilled Count of Unfilled Count of Duplicate Total Per Dept.
City Attorney's Office 2 2
City Clerk 1 23 121 58 205
Code Enforcement 3 3
Communications and Intergovernmental Relations 1 1
Finance 1 61 4 66
Fire 1 138 19 158
Housing & Community Services 2 1 3
Human Resources 10 4 14
Information Technology 1 2 3
Multiple 9 231 41 2 282
PED 12 331 147 2 493
Police 2 181 110 7 301
Recreation & Parks 2 2
Transportation & Public Works 116 11 127
Water 39 2 41
Grand Total 26 1141 462 69 1701
Attachment 3
CITY OF SANTA ROSA
2025 PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS REPORT
2 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 information, records retention schedules, personal contact/complainant information, and 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.
Affidavits Not Received
55 10%
No Records: Other
Agency
66 12%
Requests Withdrawn
11 2%
Duplicates
69 13%
No Response from
Requester
46 9%
No Records: Does Not
Exist
184
35%
Non-Releasable Records
81 15%
Not a Records Request,
19 4%
Unfilled Closure Reasons
Affidavits Not Received No Records: Other Agency Requests Withdrawn Duplicates No Response from Requester No Records: Does Not Exist Non-Releasable Records Not a Records Request
CITY OF SANTA ROSA
2025 PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS REPORT
3 5 Year Snapshot
Unique Requester Data
Although not a requirement of the City Code Chapter 1-10 Open Government, Article 3, in 2023 the Open Government Implementation Task Force requested unique requester data be provided. In 2025, 1,086 unique requesters submitted a total of 1,701 public records requests, compared to 1,020 unique requesters that submitted 1,515 public records requests in 2024. 1514
1321 1316
1515
1701
0 200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Total Requests Per Year
0 200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Requests Per Year