Roswell considers adding conditions to city’s open records request policy

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

ROSWELL, Ga. — The Roswell City Council advanced a resolution March 14 that would require people to provide a “verifiable” name and address when submitting open records requests.

At the city’s Administration, Finance, Recreation and Parks Committee meeting, all but one of the councilmembers voted in favor of the resolution. Councilwoman Sarah Beeson cast a dissenting vote.

The resolution states that anyone requesting a public record must provide a “verifiable name and address.”

Roswell public records, like police reports and city emails are available via open records requests. Anyone can file a request for the information. Once filed, city staff must gather the records. If the records search requires time to gather, the city then charges the applicant a fee when the request is filled.

Mayor Kurt Wilson said the resolution is focused on protecting the public’ tax dollars, because the city is “inundated” with time-consuming open records requests.

Under the resolution, the city would not fill requests for “unverifiable” requestors. The council did not specify what the verification process would entail. Anyone who wants to remain anonymous would be able to go to City Hall to inspect, copy and pay for public documents.

Wilson said the policy change would not impact the city’s position that “all information inside of the city is open and accessible to all residents.”

Wilson said there have been incidents with fake requests, spurring the push for verification.

He cited a specific request in which the city clerk, Marlee Press, noticed the name of the person requesting documents did not align with the provided email address. When the clerk reached out to the resident, they denied every filing an open records request.