A. Responding to public records requests is one of the City’s unique and essential functions.

B. Similar to the City’s other essential functions, the staffing and resources that the City can devote to responding to public records requests are necessarily limited.

C. In order to avoid excessive interference with other essential functions of the City, the City will establish the appropriate level of effort and the level of resources to be allocated in responding to public records requests.

D. The level of resources allocated to public records requests must be reasonable and needs to be established during the biennial budget process when the City Council evaluates the available resources to perform all of the City’s essential functions and establishes levels of service.

E. Starting with the 2017-2018 biennial budget and continuing thereafter, the City Council will quantify the level of effort and the amount of resources to be allocated in responding to public records requests.

F. The City will adopt a set of rules that will provide guidance to both the public and City staff regarding the process of handling public records requests, and the City Manager shall be delegated authority to add to or amend such rules as is found necessary. (Ord. M-4083 §2, 2014)