City not meeting records goal, media getting faster response than public

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The spirit with which public officials work to comply with the law is as important as the law itself.
— North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper on public records law

GREENSBORO, NC — State law demands that public records be produced "as promptly as possible." The city of Greensboro's records request training manual advises:

Goal is to fulfill all requests for records within 2 business days

Something has gone awry.


(Response times are in business days)

According to city records, reporters from traditional news organizations receive records from the city faster than other citizens but neither group is getting them, on average, within the City's goal or within what would be reasonably considered to be the legally mandated "as promptly as possible." For records requests from January 1, 2012 through December 1, 2012, these are the average response times:

Media requester: 6.4 working days
Other citizens: 8.7 working days

Some records requests have gone unfilled for months. Here are a few examples from 2012*:

• 23 weeks, 4 days:
  Request by Don Patterson of the News & Record for something identified as "Landport project."
• 24 weeks, 2 days:
  Request by blogger Kieth Brown, also for "Landport project."
• 39 weeks, 2 days:
  Request by William Hill for "Law enforcement/off duty arrests."
• 4 weeks, 1 day:
  Request by this blogger for "Emails that reference phone conversation with mayor."
• 8 weeks, 1 day:
  Request by George Hartzman for "Water/Sewer trust fund."
• 12 weeks, 2 days:
  Request by Ben Holder for "James Hinson info, directives, voicemails, etc."
• 2 weeks, 1 day:
  A request by Travis Fain of the News & Record for "Jordan Lake Rules request."
• 13 weeks, 3 days:
  A request by "D. Unknown" for "Latin Kings email search."
• 4 weeks, 4 days:
  A request by Yes! Weekly's Eric Ginsberg for "Police officer information."
• 4 weeks, 2 days:
  A request by James Gibson for "Occupy Greensboro."

Keep in mind, as I know from experience, these are the periods until the city closed the request, which does not always mean it was fulfilled. If the City determines that they have given you all the information they are going to give you, even if it is incomplete, a request will be marked closed.


* The quoted descriptions of these requests are as the City reported them, not as they were worded by the requester.