One of the many things that our government clients have found eBridge useful for is in helping them comply with public record requests in a more timely and organized manner. Separate from the federal Freedom of Information Act, which excludes local and state governments, the state-based open government regulations, often referred to as “Sunshine Laws,” differ slightly from state to state. All of them, however, have the similar intention of making public records accessible to the public in a timely manner.

Some states have no proscribed timeline in which they must respond to the request and either disclose the information requested, or decline to do so; others have mandates to respond “promptly” or “within a reasonable time period,” often somewhere between five and 15 business days of the request being received. Many states don’t necessarily require the record custodian to send the requested information within that time period, but rather to acknowledge the receipt of the request. They’ll then have additional time to disclose the information or deny the request.

One of the highest missions a local or state government has is to serve its citizens, and public record requests are one of the more quantifiable examples of this service. When an agency or department is asked to provide information, their hope is always to do it quickly enough to benefit the person requesting them. But both in the case of states that have no timeline and those that require response within a certain time period, it definitely benefits any state or local government agency or department to have that information readily accessible.

When decades of records are stored in file room upon file room, it can understandably take longer than a record custodian would like to pull that information. Even worse, it can become nearly impossible in certain cases to meet a 3-day or 5-day window, often requiring the agency or department to reach out to the requester for an extension, or delay the request otherwise.

Many cities, counties and other municipalities across the nation are adopting hosted document management services to manage their paper files in secure online accounts. eBridge currently works with 16 public health departments throughout Florida, as well as several counties across the states, helping them to streamline their workflow and meet numerous compliance guidelines.