Commentary: Public Records Requests Aren’t the Problem, They’re the Symptom

March 10, 2026

Public records laws exist because government does not always volunteer information, even when decisions involve millions of public dollars; statutory planning requirements; procurement rules; or policies affecting housing, infrastructure, and vulnerable populations. When normal transparency mechanisms fail, citizens are left with one tool: formal requests for records.

In other words, public records requests are not the disease. They are the thermometer.

If key planning, contract procurement, or infrastructure decisions are clear, well-documented, and proactively shared, citizens won’t need to spend months digging through records. Transparency reduces requests. Opaqueness increases them.

It is also worth noting what the article itself acknowledges: public records access is central to journalism and government accountability. Limiting access because requests are inconvenient would punish the public, not solve governance problems.

If the goal is to reduce the burden on the staff, the solution is not to weaken transparency laws. The solution is better governance, clearer processes, proactive disclosure, and decisions made openly so residents do not need to reverse-engineer what happened after the fact.