chiliedogg , 13 days ago

The State only allows us to charge $15/hour for staff time for PIRs, so we can’t just hire someone or ask an employee to work an extra 20 hours a week for a year to pull some documents the requestor won’t even read.

The thing is lots of these ludicrous requests are made by right-wing lobbyists who try to make us spend 80 grand on a pointless request so they can point out how the city is wasting money. They create problems so they can get the state to remove our ability to make local Ordinances.

For legitimate requests, we go out of our way to meet them. I’ve spent a lot of time digging through paper files from the 1920s to help citizens.

But most of our requests are either automated bullshit from realtors looking for cheap land, insurance companies looking for who to advertise to, contractors looking for work, lobbyists looking to stir up shit, or, oddly enough, lawn service companies.

For those requests, we do what’s legally required and not a damn thing more.