A spike in public requests to get City of Coquitlam records is prompting municipal managers to flag the need for more staff next year.
According to its annual report on access to information and privacy management, which came before committee this spring, the city received 30 per cent more requests in 2023 versus 2022, for a total of 193 letters.
Lauren Hewson, Coquitlam’s information, privacy and administrative services manager, said the 2023 requests and applicants were similar to 2022; however, the number requests for traffic camera footage, in particular, have increased — making up about 63 per cent of the requests received for engineering records.
Here’s the breakdown of 2023 records requests:
- engineering, 57
- traffic camera footage, environmental concerns, sidewalk repairs, encroachments, snow clearing, service requests and work orders
- Fire/Rescue, 40
- incidents, investigations and inspections
- records relating to multiple departments, 33
- planning and development, 20
- applications, reports and complaints
- legal, 17
- bylaw enforcement, property use, encroachments, complaints and licensing
- administration/council, 14
- tax sales, council records, phone records, payments and FOI requests
- parks and recreation, 11
- attendance records, incidents, contracts and CCTV
- human resources, 1
Hewson said the general public filed 123 requests for information last year, followed by:
- law firms, 21
- third-party contractors, 16
- business owners, 13
- insurance adjusters, 10
- public bodies, 6
- media, 4
As a result, city staff processed more than 15,000 pages of records and publicly released about 6,700 of them, equalling 877 hours or 117 days of staff time.
On average, each request takes roughly three hours to complete or up to 20 hours for complex files to evaluate, liaise with departments, photocopy pages and respond.
Hewson said B.C. legislation introduced last year on privacy management programs and privacy breach notifications are having an impact at city hall to better safeguard personal data with ever-changing technology.
And this year, as part of the city clerk’s office work plan, city staff are reviewing elements of Coquitlam's Privacy Management and Accountability Program (PMAP).
In addition to the record collection, Hewson said, the city clerk’s office is also spending more time working with other civic staff on Privacy Impact Assessments, a measure enacted in 2011 by the provincial government, as well as training employees about privacy-related matters.
“Given the increasing workload required to support the city’s Privacy Management and Accountability Program, staff will be assessing the resources across the city clerk’s office and potentially bring forward an additional resource request as part of the 2025 budget,” wrote deputy city manager Michelle Hunt, in her report to council.
