Municipal Clerks weigh in on OPRA

by Jane Roh

| courierpostonline.com | Courier-Post

Just 36 percent said most of the requests they receive are for political purposes. And only 3 percent wanted OPRA abolished outright. 

Workloads tend to vary according to a town\’s size, with larger towns more likely to receive a large number of requests. Towns of 25,000 residents or more received an average of 250 OPRA requests in 2009, while towns with 2,500 to 7,500 received a median of 72 requests. Nor does the system appear to be clogged by partisan gadflies: permits are the most frequently requested documents (24 percent), followed by council minutes or agendas (23 percent), other construction or building materials (19 percent) and ordinances (17 percent).

Larger towns also are more likely to fret about the volume of requests. Just 43 percent of towns of 25,000 or more said they were adequately prepared to handle current loads, while overall 62 percent said their manpower is adequate. Slightly less than a third said volume has increased a lot over the past two years, and 71 percent said tending to OPRA requests took too much time from other duties.

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