Sitka Assembly takes up a public records appeal Tuesday

A Sitka resident's appeal of a public records determination reaches the City and Borough of Sitka Assembly on Tuesday.

Austin W. Cranford is challenging Municipal Clerk Sara Peterson's determination on a records request he filed June 23. The Assembly is scheduled to act on it at its regular meeting, which begins at 6 pm in Assembly Chambers.

The agenda does not say what records Cranford sought or what Peterson determined.

The clerk's office handles all records requests for the city and borough, routing them through the responsible department and the legal department before release. The city's stated timeframe for filling a request is 10 business days, and fees may apply.

The office reported more than 152 individual records requests in fiscal 2021, a 40% increase from the prior period, and 130 in fiscal 2022, 54 of them police-related.

Records access is contested beyond Sitka. At an Alaska House State Affairs Committee hearing in April, journalist Courtney Warszawski told members there are "165 incorporated communities in the state, which means 165 different interpretations" of state law and of each community's own records ordinance.