During its last regular meeting of the year on Monday, the Alachua City Commission appointed planning and zoning board members, paved the way for growth at Westside Commons and sparred during a lengthy discussion over amending public records request procedures. 

Commissioner Jacob Fletcher called for the discussion about public records requests and general access to city policies. 

He detailed a timeline of requests he’d made since September for various city policies and procedures, which staff calculated would cost nearly $800 to fulfill. Fletcher said he didn’t receive itemized breakdowns of tasks justifying the totals as required by law until this month, after he submitted the issue as an item for Monday’s agenda.  

“A sitting commissioner was effectively told you have to pay a fee and wait in line to see the very policies that govern how the city and we as a commission are responsible for overseeing,” he said. 

Since the item was submitted for Monday’s agenda, Fletcher said he’d worked with interim City Manager Rodolfo Valladares to draft a document standardizing the city’s public records requests procedures. 

Fletcher made a motion to hold a workshop where the commission could move toward adopting the policies and centralize all city governing policies for officials and residents to freely access without making public records requests. 

“We will move from ad hoc practices and case-by-case disputes towards a transparent, predictable framework that supports staff, that supports this commission and better serves the people of Alachua,” he said.  

Not receiving a second, Fletcher’s motion for a workshop died. 

Although Commissioner Dayna Williams agreed some of the policies could be more readily available on the city’s website, she said it’s not the job of a commissioner to know all the ins and outs of department policies like a city manager.  

She said Fletcher’s public records requests sounded extensive enough to warrant the bills he received, and that commissioners should pay for requests instead of being held to separate standards from residents. 

Fletcher said the issue raises the question of what policies should be readily available in a centralized location.  

He said records pulled by commissioners should be treated as internal workload requests, like with other staff, saving money and time when preparing for upcoming meetings. 

If the information can only be accessed via public records requests with expensive price tags, Fletcher said the city is stifling commissioner oversight.  

Vice Mayor Shirley Green Brown, who presided over Monday’s meeting, also disagreed with Fletcher’s stance that the city faces procedural gaps, saying in her 13 years as a commissioner, she’d never had a problem getting information she needed. 

She said communication is key and that she presses staff whenever she doesn’t get a prompt response. 

“There’s always room for improvement,” she said. “There’s always a way to look at a situation, redefine it, make modifications. I’m open to that. But I don’t necessarily agree that we have gaps.” 

While Fletcher said multiple commissioners in other municipalities told him he shouldn’t have to pay for the policies he requested, Commissioner Jennifer Ringersen said she’d spoken with former Alachua commissioners who said they never made public records requests because staff always provided what they needed.

She said she feels like Fletcher’s accusations of gaps with staff move the city backwards as it tries to move forward. 

Ringersen also said under former City Attorney Marian Rush, new commissioners in Alachua would undergo an orientation briefing them on policies. She asked Fletcher if he received one when he first became a commissioner in April and he said he hadn’t.  

Valladares acknowledged the city’s transitions between city attorneys shook up operations.  

He said Rush had certain policies and procedures for public records requests the city used to follow and that he’d worked with the city’s current attorney, Scott Walker, to develop new ones. 

The city commission also voted Alachua residents Jenny Highlander and Bill Menadier to the planning and zoning board on Monday.  

Highlander and Menadier were among six candidates who applied and will serve one-year terms and two-year terms, respectively. 

According to backup meeting documents, the positions became vacant last month when members Sandy Burgess and Susan Sloan resigned, citing professional and personal obligations.  

Editor’s note: This story was underwritten by a grant from the Rural Reporting Initiative at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida. To learn more or get involved, click here.