Local officials are looking for a little leeway on the Open Records Act from state legislators during the upcoming legislative session.

Gainesville City Manager Kip Padgett and Oakwood City Manager Stan Brown asked the Hall County delegation earlier this month to consider amending the law to allow for a five-day response time to records requests. Current law requires officials to give an initial response in three days.

"The Open Records Law is great to keep the government open, but it seems like companies and law firms are using it for a fishing expedition to get information, " Padgett said. "If we have people asking for personnel files on a police officer from the time he was hired until present day, that could be 20 years of paperwork, and we have to redact names and information."

This year, Gainesville staff spent 35,000 minutes - or the equivalent of 24 days - on more than 225 records requests. Last year, staff spent 33,000 minutes on more than 200 requests.

"That's 25 percent of our clerk time, and it's hindering us," Padgett said.

Many companies that use the open records privileges may also be misusing it, Brown said.

"We've had out-of-state companies send out requests for us to produce documents that I assume are used for marketing information," he said. "If it asks us how many vehicles the police department has seized in the last year, I'm wondering why someone in New Jersey wants that information. It's out of left field and mass-marketed."

After Brown files and answers the requests, he doesn't usually receive any feedback or follow-up correspondence on the information.

"I don't know what they're using it for, probably taking the information and sending it to other people," Brown said. "It isn't within the intent of what the law was meant to provide with openness in government, and it's forcing us to provide information in 72 hours that really has no relevance."

With budget cuts, a short staff and limited resources on hand, Brown sees other items on his desk as more important.

"That 72 hours is a pretty quick turnaround, especially when you have to determine what they're really looking for," he said. "It doesn't seem right that a request like that can jump to the top of your priority list."

Though the Open Records Act time extension may be a small request, local delegates said they'll try to address anything that hinders government efficiency.

"If it's an overwhelming issue, we need to know about it because it's costing us on the right hand, and on the left hand it's coming out of taxpayer dollars to pay for it," said Rep. James Mills, R-Gainesville. "The question for us is how to keep it open but also limit unreasonable requests."