Well, That Seems Reasonable
The Texas Open Records Act is meant to keep government open to the eyes of the citizens.
Republicans in the state legislature and the attorney general’s office have done everything they can to keep that from happening. If they could shut it down by dancin’ buttbuck naked around the Alamo, they’d do it.
Enter the City of San Antonio. There have been some very odd police officer and firefighter suspensions in San Antonio, so the local newspaper got curious. They filed an open records request with the city.
The requested information includes all emails sent or received by SAPD employees that mentioned suspensions of officers or coverage of those suspensions by the Express-News and mySA.com in 2015.
A governmental agency is allowed to charge “an amount that reasonably includes all costs for producing” public records, but must provide an itemized cost estimate if it exceeds $40.
The police department responded with a cost of $81,333 because their email system does not allow for searches. That means that all emails from all employees have to be transferred to another computer and then go through a hand search.
Yes, just like in 1980. Honey, if your email system is older than Y2K, it might be time for an upgrade.
Now see, there’s also the mathematical fact that $81,333 translates to 10,166 eight-hour days, which is a damn long time, even in dog years.
You know what? I don’t believe it. I think it’s hogwash. I hope the newspaper sues and makes some geek take the stand and explain why there’s no search function on their email program. Even if there isn’t one, I’ll bet you that’s on purpose, too.
Thanks to Lizbeth for the heads up.
I have no idea what email they use, but if it isn’t centralized (like and Exchange or Domino server), then there might be real issues with doing a comprehensive search.
I don’t think it’d be an $80,000 dollar issue, though.
1Maybe it’s just being in a tech-rich county, but I feel that the antediluvian system/luddite attitude are normal down there.
2In the spirit of “do not attempt this feat at home” or “do not use this electric appliance in the bath tub,” taking any numbers provided by the snacilbupeR cannot be placed into a logical balance sheet. What variables they provide are lies and the ones they omit are real whoppers.
“Now see, there’s also the mathematical fact that $81,333 translates to 10,166 eight-hour days, which is a damn long time, even in dog years.” That’s 80,000 hours for free. But say the pay rate was $80/hour, that would be 1000 hours with someone unqualified to work a pencil. Probably a “bid” from someone in A-Butts’ family or George Pee’s.
3Unqualified to comment except that it sounds like caca del toro to me, but I just looked at the national radar and boy howdy is this not a good day to be in Texas. Y’all got blizzards on one side and floods and tornados on the other. I hope everybody’s safe. Here in Maryland we’re just yo-yoing between the 70s and the 40s and wishing things would dry out before we all develop webbed feet. Not much flooding here but tropical humidity and unending drizzle. I got a glimpse of some bright thing in the sky that worries me, but it was just a glimpse.
4@Annabelle Lee
I have read in the trade rags which email server SAPD operated but too much post-christmas pagan holiday cheer has that memory playing hide and seek. I think it wasn’t exchange though. Their records system, at least in 2014, was an Intergraph product.
5Please don’t put the image in my head of naked dancing Republicans.
6At that rate for that many 8 hour days, I think the pay rate would be about $1/hr. Those Texas bureaucrats wish their minimum wage was that low.
7@ Rhea. And they played the “Sun” Bowl in a blizzard in El Paso yesterday.
8Sorry but reading your post and knowing something about computers, I would say your politicians are crooks! They are stone walling by giving excessive costs, as it could be down on an outside computer in just a few days at little cost.
9$81 grand plus change? Honey, that’s the new definition of horse pucker!
10Sarah Palin’s administration up in Alaska tried to pull this scam on Mother Jones back in 2008. It took 2-1/2 years to get them to let loose her e-mails from several different gov’t accounts, some severely redacted.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/06/sarah-palin-emails-revealed-live-updates
11“The requested information includes all emails sent or received by SAPD employees that mentioned suspensions of officers or coverage of those suspensions by the Express-News and mySA.com in 2015.”
Now a request needs to be made for all e-mails generated concerning the request for information, about the SAPD!
12I think a hearing on the City of San Antonio Police Department’s (SAPD’s) e-mail system’s specifications and capabilities is in order. If the records can be transferred to another computer, why can’t they be transferred to a computer with search capabilities? Lots of e-discovery companies out there specializing in such tasks in civil litigation. One might even be induced to offer their services in exchange for free advertising of their capabilities…
On a side note – as Juanita observes, perhaps the SAPD may want to look at upgrading their e-mail systems. I hear Google and Microsoft are competing in this area – and Google offers cloud-based e-mail, saving server administration costs.
Of course, the ability to stonewall open record requests may be seen as a feature rather than a bug…
13They can use a scripting function that any college Computer Science student can operate. Here’s hoping the obstructionists at the SAPD get their ears boxed.
14Mrs. Clinton take note. This here’s a REAL email scandal.
15What a bunch of horse dung! Hope that newspaper sues the pants off of those Republican criminals. Oops, sorry, Vickie, more naked republicans.
assuming a 365 day year, they are claiming it will take them 28 man years to fulfill this request. I suspect they are hoping everyone involved will be dead by then.
16Uhh, guys, the Repub’s aren’t the only ones showing some mathematical impairment, here.
Assuming one office drone working on this at federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr., it comes out to 11,053 hours. Assuming your standard 40-hour work week, that’s only 5.3 years. Take out holidays and vacations – about 160 hrs/year for 20 days – and the time extends to 5.75 years.
Now, even though it’s starvation-wage Texas, they’ll probably have to pop for some skilled labor. So let’s say 8 bucks an hour. Now we’re down to 5.2 years. Perfectly reasonable timetable, allowing people to finish their terms in office or take a slightly earlier retirement than anticipated.
Actually, I think it’s more likely that they took a bid from some shyster nephew’s “consulting firm”, and were quoted a rate that would make a white-shoe attorney weep for joy.
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