Brevard County Commissioners want to change their public records request policies. As Ralph Chapoco of Florida Today reports, the first change would allow the county to combine similar requests made by one person. The second change would prohibit the county from fulfilling future requests from a person if they have any unpaid invoices. Daniela Abratt of Thomas & LoCicero told Chapoco that the proposals seem like additional roadblocks to access records.
The last change would reduce the hourly rate the county charges for requests reviewed by commissioners. While this proposal could reduce the rates charged for public records requests, FAF’s general counsel, Ed Birk, questioned whether commissioners should be involved in reviewing their own records. As Birk explained, “[y]ou are letting the people whose records are being requested, you are going to let them do the collection of the documents and deciding what is public record and what is not.”