The request was simple, perhaps too simple.

A formal request was made under the California Public Record Acts for all City of Manteca emails with the words “water park” in them.

That generated 22,000 emails.

Another request was complicated.

It was a 10-page Public Records Act request regarding Americans with Disability Act related issues with each page having 7 to 10 specific areas of inquiry.

Those are two examples two Public Records Act requests the City Clerk’s office is or has dealt with over the years.

Manteca’s city clerk’s office handled 42 public records requests over the course of 2016.

The number ballooned to 510 in 2026.

And as of last Wednesday, the city has received 579 public records requests so this this year. Of those, 101 requests are still in the process of being researched.

Doing so takes up almost all of the time of one of the City Clerk office’s three employees.

It also — more often than not — requires staff time of departments impacted or involved with the request. And depending upon the nature of the request, it can also require the involvement of the city attorney’s office.

If the request involves asking for phone numbers dialed by specific persons on city business, a telecommunications carrier becomes involved.

And if some of the records sought predate 2000 as sometimes occurs, the wealth of electronic records are useless. That means going to storage and physically searching hundreds of boxes filled with city documents.

“We do our best,” City Clerk Cassandera Candini-Tilton said.

Local jurisdictions have 10 days under current state law to reply to a public records request.

But that doesn’t mean every shred of information the city has that the request asks for is produced at that time. That’s because the law allows for a reasonable amount of time to tackle more complicated and extensive requests.

In those cases, cities are required to keep those making requests informed of their progress.

Next year, a new state law goes into effect that gives local jurisdictions 10 business days as opposed to 10 calendar days to respond with the requested information or to share an update on their progress.

The uptick in public records request ironically comes at the same time the city is expanding the ease that the general public can search for records on the city website whether it is previous council agenda documents or meeting videos or as wide variety of development related information.
Tilton noted the city strives to be as transparent as possible including through public records acts requests.

In the case of the ADA request — which is part of a statewide blanketing of government agencies — the complex nature of what is being asked covering multiple subjects makes it impossible for cities to comply within 10 days.

The city has been slammed by some on social media for not producing what was requested within 10 days.

But that is not what the state law says must happen.

Within 10 days state law requires an agency must determine whether it has disclosable records and notify the requestor of its decision and the reasons behind it. This is a deadline for notification, not a hard deadline for handing over the actual documents.

*14-Day Extension: If "unusual circumstances" apply (such as needing to search separate facilities, handle voluminous records, or consult with other departments), the agency can extend this initial response period by an additional 14 calendar days.

*Delivery of Records: The California Public Records Act does not set a fixed calendar deadline for turning over the files. Instead, the law requires agencies to make disclosable records "promptly available". In practice, actual delivery can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks or months depending on the size and complexity of the request.

As an example, in the case of the “water park” email request a number of years ago, the city worked with the requestee to fine tune what they were looking for so it wouldn’t bury the recipient in a massive data dump.

In other instances, the request itself was meant to be a data dump that requires more staff time and effort to fulfill.

Cities throughout California and other states have reported a massive surge in public records request.

The federal version — the Federal Freedom of Information Act — frequently take months or even years because federal agencies face record-high request volumes, severe staffing shortages, and massive national backlogs.

Under federal law, U.S. federal agencies have 20 business days (excluding weekends and legal holidays) to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request from the date it is received by the appropriate office.

But the actual delivery of the requested material actually takes significantly longer.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com