Free Information Need Not Cost a Fortune – Town of Dover in the News

 

Free Information Need Not Cost a Fortune

By Chris Wacker

Sunshine Week, a nationwide initiative which runs through March 18 this year, highlights the importance of government transparency. It’s been around for 10 years, but a simple Google search for “Freedom of Information” reveals a pretty bleak picture of the time and expense involved in giving public access to government records nationwide. That’s because the complexity and cost of accessing public information and protecting privacy and security keeps going up right alongside public demands for other government services.

Some government organizations, however, are proactively working to simplify the process of fulfilling freedom of information law requests, making them less cumbersome, less costly and less time-intensive. This means public information gets into the hands of those who wish to see it, faster and more easily.

This growing number of state and local governments nationwide are using document management software with business process automation technology to eliminate many of the manual tasks associated with freedom of information law requests. Government staff who used to spend days or weeks on these administrative tasks—including data entry, ensuring reviews, obtaining approvals and sending email updates—can now spend more time on other services, leading to a better relationship with the public.

This technology is moving past the internet portals so many government agencies have built into their websites allowing access to readily available public records, such a property assessments. These organizations are making it easier for citizens to request access to records like purchase orders, voting records, or litigation. Not all aspects of such documents are public, making the process of reviewing and redacting information where the real costs of freedom of information come in.

These types of requests can be the most complicated to properly fulfill. Freedom of information laws require government organizations to respond within certain time frames, to be thorough, and to redact any sensitive or personal information. Requests can involve the clerk or records manager, attorneys and multiple departments.

For many cities and counties, a freedom of information law request is the default means by which to request copies of documents. With hundreds or even thousands of requests each year, these requests can demand a lot of resources from the government organization that holds the information. Some requests can get lost or delayed, exposing governments to penalties or legal action.

The state of Washington, for example, spent more than $60 million fulfilling 114,000 records requests. The city of Chicago paid $670,000 responding to FOIL lawsuits last year, while at the federal level, agencies received 713,168 FOIA requests in fiscal 2015 costing $480 million.

These costs are cut by five and six figures when business process automation software is deployed to eliminate the manual copying, redacting, delivering and many other aspects of allowing access to public records while protecting security and privacy.

The city attorney’s office in Ithaca, NY, is reporting saving one half-time staff position after reducing the 40 hours it spends per week on responding to Freedom of Information Law requests to just 18. Shortly after the recount following the election of Sen. Al Franken, Ramsey County, MN, used similar technology to build a digital workflow that would automatically redact sensitive information. The county estimates the technology will save it $10,000 should another election challenge arise.

The Town of Dover, NY, estimates it’s saving about 1 percent of its annual operating budget as the time spent responding to many of its Freedom of Information Law requests has been reduced to just a few hours. The County of Albemarle, VA, automated the process for uploading and indexing building and planning permits and code violation files, reducing the time involved in accessing the information from days to hours.

Speak to officials at each of these governments and they will agree that business process automation not only sharply cut costs while improving access to government records, the technology is now a template for similar improvement in operations agencywide. They will also agree that freedom of information need not be a burden on government, but with the right technology and processes in place, it can actually be an avenue for better relationships with the constituents they serve.

 

Chris Wacker is CEO of Laserfiche, a leading global provider of enterprise content management software based in Long Beach CA.

Author: Harlem Valley News