The Jacksonville city council last night hired a Chicago law firm to help with the crush of freedom of information act, or FOIA requests the city has received in the past three years.
Mayor Andy Ezard says the number has jumped from about 400 two years ago, to 684 last year, and just over a thousand so far this year.
Ezard says Ancel Glink will help the city develop policies for requests, and advise on how the city should handle them.
The mayor says the firm will use policies developed elsewhere to determine how Jacksonville will respond to the requests.
In some cases, Ezard says the firm will tell the city what it needs to respond to, and what it doesn’t. He says redaction in criminal cases is time consuming.
The firm will also help with FOIA requests through the police department.
Ezard says it will cost the city a projected $75-thousand to $100-thousand extra a year.