St. Petersburg looks to improve its public records procedures

By: Mark Parker, St. Pete Catalyst | Published January 25, 2026

Hanewicz stressed the importance of government transparency and said she couldn’t recall a previous public discussion on the record request policies established in 2012. “I also have the belief that if you do come across something that can be improved, then you improve it. And that’s my goal here,” she said. “I don’t want things to fall through the cracks,” Hanewicz added. “If there are things we can make better, let’s have an open mind so we can do that.”

City Administrator Rob Gerdes pledged to explore implementing a new document management system that provides a centralized location for records, as departments often use varying platforms. Hanewicz also advocated for an employee service level tracking mechanism and credited the administration for conducting a related survey to discern “what they may need.”

Srinivasa noted that St. Petersburg began using the internal GovQA platform to help process requests in 2014. He and Assistant City Attorney Jeannine Williams, who monitors compliance, subsequently drafted the city’s first guidebook to ensure uniformity.

“Since then, multiple jurisdictions, as well as municipalities throughout Pinellas County, throughout the state of Florida, have adopted our guidebook as their own,” Srinivasa said. “Prime example: The city of Tampa, most recently, adopted it as well.”