Delaware considering below-average 10-day deadline on records responses
The Delaware legislature is considering a bill that would require state and local agencies to respond to a public records request within 10 business days, according to a story on Delaware Online.
The story presents the 10-day deadline as a good thing. I’m not so sure. Granted, federal FOIA allows for 20 business days, and sometimes when no deadline is in the law agencies can draw out requests for a long time. However, more than half the states have shorter deadlines of seven or five days (see http://www.citizenaccess.org/ or www.rcfp.org/ogg). Most of the other states require agencies to reply promptly, meaning that many will often see that as a few days, or within hours. For example, Arizona has no deadline but a few years ago when I sent requests to all police and school districts in the state, the average response time was six days. If we had a statutory 10-day deadline then I imagine the average would be closer to 10 days.
Already, an attorney general opinion in Delaware suggests 10 days is reasonable. This bill creates a law making Delaware one of the worst states for records response. The bill would be better if it had a five-day response deadline, or no deadline at all. Too bad if it passes.