The Montgomery County Office of Public Information completes roughly 25 percent of public information requests within the legally mandated 30 days, a sharp drop over the last two years, county budget documents show.
The rate represents a sharp decline from the 39 percent completed on time last fiscal year and the 95 percent in fiscal 2010, the office’s self-reported data show. Though the total number of requests rose from 29 two years ago to 78 last year, the office expects to finish out fiscal 2012 with about 80 requests, for a marginal increase.
The data refer largely to written requests from members of the media, said Donna Bigler, assistant director of the Office of Public Information, rather than requests from residents, who are also entitled to information under Maryland’s Public Information Act. Bigler does not track requests that are transmitted orally.
“It’s not a thing I’m proud of, that I’m not making the deadline in a lot of cases,” Bigler said.
She attributed the decline largely to staff cutbacks, explaining that even though her office did not have huge staffing cuts, her ability to fulfill information requests has been impeded by shrinking staffs elsewhere in county government.
“Part of it is that the requests are getting more complex,” she added. With reduced newsroom staffs, reporters are relying more on public information personnel to do significant legwork, she said.
But Jack Murphy, executive director of the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, said he doesn’t buy it.
Newspapers are “not asking any more out of public information officers than they used to,” he said. “Public information officers have always complained that they get too many requests.”
Public documents should be produced “immediately,” and definitely in no more than 30 days, according to an analysis of the Public Information Act by state Attorney General Doug Gansler. When an official is acting in good faith but cannot produce documents immediately, the law gives some leeway but asks that requests be made available in whole or part as soon as possible.
“The intent of the law is the information should be released within a timely matter,” Murphy said. “I don’t think they’re following the spirit of the law, even if they’re following the letter of the law.”
