Gov. Baker plans to improve process for public record requests
Massachusetts is notoriously bad with public records requests.
Earlier this year, the state police won the “The Golden Padlock Award,’’ which recognized the agency for its efforts to thwart public records requests.
But Gov. Charlie Baker announced new procedures for his administration on Thursday with the goal of increasing transparency and streamlining the administration’s responses to these requests.
The aim is “to comply with and exceed the requirements’’ of the state’s current public records law, according to a press release from Baker’s office, while reducing delays and costs for those who request public records.
“These new measures reduce costs and make the public records request process more uniform and timely, increasing government’s public accountability, openness and transparency,’’ Baker said in a statement.
The changes in procedure include designating a Records Access Officer, or “RAO,’’ for secretariats and agencies, who would be responsible for receiving, coordinating, and tracking requests. The RAO’s contact information will be posted on the agency’s website.
Once a request is put in, the RAO will notify the “requester’’ within five days if the records will take more than $10 and/or more than 10 days to produce, according to the press release. Current law gives record-keepers 10 days just to respond to a request.
Costs will also be standardized under Baker’s direction, a change that is also proposed in a bill introduced earlier this year to improve the state’s public records.
The complete changes will be put in place in “the coming weeks,’’ according to the press release.
How the Boston skyline has changed:
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