A bill that would give counties more time to respond to records requests is moving through the State Legislature.
CalMatters reports Assembly Bill 1821 would allow the delays and charge Californians more to obtain government records.
The legislation was sponsored by Assemblymember Bianca Pacheco, a Southern California Democrat, and co-written by the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties.
If passed into law, it would allow government agencies to delay responding to certain requests as much as two weeks. The legislation would also charge administrative fees of $22 to $66 an hour to search for and review the records they deem are for “commercial use.”
Government agencies could also take requests to court, if they believe someone is asking for the records for a malicious reason.
But First Amendment advocates say state law already allows agencies to decline frivolous records requests by arguing that they are “unduly burdensome.” Even when requests are legitimate, agencies routinely delay fulfilling them or withhold records for months or years, drawing legal challenges.
Critics also slammed the measure for empowering agencies to decide how quickly they need to respond to requests based on how people file them.
