Page 36 - GCN, March and April 2017

OPEN GOVERNMENT
FOIA REQUESTS RECEIVED VS. BACKLOG, FISCAL 2010-2015
800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
0
597,415
69,526
644,165
651,254
703,394
714,231
713,168
159,741
102,828
83,490
71,790
2012
95,564
2013
2010 2011
REQUESTS RECEIVED
2014
2015
Source: FOIA.gov
BACKLOG
technology in responding to requests. The main buzzword associated with modernizing records requests is auto- mation, a service that vendors are lin- ing up to offer. For instance, Logikcull’s technology lets users drag and drop data of all sizes and types into its cloud- based system, which then analyzes, deduplicates and organizes the data, making it all searchable. After deploy- ing Logikcull, Fairfax County, Va., went from a three-week response time to same-day responses, said Andy Wilson, CEO of the e-discovery and document
management software firm.
Alfresco released a new digital busi-
ness platform in February that combines content and process services with re- cords management. The Alfresco Digital Business Platform, unlike solutions that target only FOIA problems, allows agen- cies to build many types of applications on top of the platform. That approach to buying once and using for many processes saves money, said Austin Ad- ams, vice president of public sector at Alfresco.
“Going out and solving FOIA to solve FOIA’s sake is just repeating the same paradigm that created the challenge we’re in,” he added. “Alfresco offered in a microservices architecture in a cloud creates a really agile, tremendously flexible...cost-saving solution.”
But it could be difficult for smaller state and local entities to invest in exter- nal solutions. For example, Logikcull’s pricing ranges from a few thousand dollars to a few million, Wilson said. Alfresco’s platform is available by sub- scription based on the number of users.
CHARGING FOR SERVICES
Agencies have used other tactics to improve their FOIA processes. For in- stance, some charge for the records and the labor associated with collect- ing them. When the now-defunct gos- sip blog Gawker submitted a request for records and email messages relating to the conduct of a police officer who drew a gun on an African American pool party-goer in McKinney, Texas, in 2015, the police department set the price for
responding at almost $79,000.
That might be extreme, said Daniel Bevarly, executive director of the Na- tional Freedom of Information Coali- tion, and the result of an inefficient re-
cords response process.
“I would ask what inefficiencies exist
in that public agency that would create such a high cost for obtaining a public record,” Bevarly said, adding that it is sensible for a government to charge “reasonable costs in terms of what the fees are to provide an open-records request.”
Many agencies don’t budget for FOIA processes, he said, but they should. “This is becoming a service that really requires a quantitative measurement on the part of these public agencies to un- derstand what the costs are involved in responding to these petitions,” Bevarly added.
At the federal level, an agency may charge for the time it takes to search re- cords. If the cost will exceed $25, the agency processing the request will noti- fy the requestor, according to FOIA.gov.
36 GCN MARCH/APRIL 2017 • GCN.COM