City Manager's Annual Report 2017 | A Year In Review | Page 9

T R A N S P A R E N C Y 3. | 9 The City Clerk’s Office has instituted a new system that keeps requestors in the loop on the status of their public records requests, speeds up the fulfillment process, tracks progress and improves the overall public records request experience in a variety of other ways. PUBLIC RECORDS In May 2017, the new Public Records Request Program was launched using a software program called REQUEST GovQA. With this system, it only takes a click of a button on the City’s website to make a public records request. This program has streamlined the process of handling incoming requests , allows the Clerk’s Office to place electronic documents responsive to requests on the City’s webpage at no cost, for easy access, and unifies the internal processes. In 2017, the City processed 1,658 requests through this new system. GovQA has given the City the ability to immediately acknowledge requests, provide documents electronically, track the progress of requests and preserve the history of each request processed. It has reporting capabilities enabling the City to produce metrics about the public records request process. With this program in place, the City meets statutory requirements, and the completion time for Public Record’s Requests has been reduced to an average of 2.85 days. 2017 1,658 Requests processed CITY OF PORT ST. LUCIE 2.85 Days average completion time A N N U A L R E P O R T 2017