Should Teaneck Hire for Records Requests?
Township officials say they face a daily flood of public records requests
Teaneck might have to hire another staff member to help process an "inordinate" amount of public records requests, Patch reported last week.
Under state law, officials must respond to the requests within seven business days. Some requests have been complex and eaten up hours of staff time, according to officials.
In the clerk's office alone, 10 to 20 public records requests come in daily, Clerk Jaime Evelina told the town council.
Should Teaneck hire another employee? What other options are available? Share your views in the comments section.
Diane Schwarz
10:28 am on Monday, January 28, 2013
How about working Fridays? Wouldn't that help?
John Santaella
12:33 pm on Monday, January 28, 2013
That might help Diane but then the town manager might have to have an extra day to his commute. This 'inordinate' request might not be present if the manager got reports out as required by law and the council would be more open.
Keith Kaplan
4:40 pm on Monday, January 28, 2013
The workers work a set number of hours per week and that wouldn't change if they were open on Fridays.
Art Vatsky
9:32 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013
Our manager lives in a town where the town hall is open 40 hours, 5 days a week. They don't have extended hours but they seem to get along OK. I wish Teaneck had the same access to town hall services UNTIL the community decided it should be different.
Art Vatsky
9:40 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013
Overhead costs are high in Teaneck government. The last number I heard was $18,000 per employee. That makes it hard to add permanent entry level staff for short term needs. Going forward it is probably easy to put more new public records online. It is the previous documents that need to be put online - a short term job, maybe months. There are companies that do this digitizing for a fee. It should be checked out before we go too much further. Time, like money, is an asset. We should not waste it.