SHEILA A. MATHEWS :::
Despite complying with demands from the city of Griffin requiring prepayment of estimated charges for Open Records requests, public records are still not being produced within the parameters of the law.
The GRIP Publisher Sheila Mathews on Wednesday, Oct. 3, paid $107.33 in estimated charges for four such requests. Responsive records should have been produced no later than the beginning of the work day Tuesday, Oct. 9. Those records have not yet been produced.
The Georgia Open Records Act (ORA) requires agencies to produce records within three business days, however no response to the four prepaid requests has been received.
In response to a Friday inquiry regarding the city’s noncompliance, Teresa Watson, who serves as an assistant Open Records officer, stated, “I should have all four responses completed by 4:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15.”
The ORA further states, “In any instance where records are unavailable within three business days of receipt of the request, and responsive records exist, the agency shall, within such time period, provide the requester with a description of such records and a timeline for when the records will be available for inspection or copying and provide the responsive records or access thereto as soon as practicable.”
The city of Griffin also did not comply with the provision of the Open Records Act that mandates a description of records be provided.