The Louisiana Public Records Law grants broad powers to citizens seeking access to governmental "public records", which are broadly defined in the statute.
The statute provides that the requested records are to be provided within three (3) days. Saturdays, Sundays, and legal public holidays are excluded in the count of three day.
The City of Shreveport website has information on making public records requests on the city website.. Those seeking these records are advised to use the Shreveport Public Records Request Portal.
When accessing the portal, the person requesting the records must describe the records requested and designate the city department to receive the request in a drop down menu. Only one department can be selected and there is no "I don't know" option.
Prior to this month (July), my requests on the portal were answered in a reasonable time.
"Reasonable" being not within the three (3) day statutory window, but more like five business days.
Evidently the wheels came off the portal or I have been basically blacklisted. A review of Settle Talk columns since Mayor Tom took office will reveal that over ninety (90) percent of my posting on the Arceneaux administration have been positive. So much positive that some have questioned if I was on the city payroll or angling for a city job.
On July 18 a FIRST request was made, with the Legal Department designated for response:
"Copy of the agreement between the City of Shreveport and Independence Bowl for the 2024 Independence Bowl
Copy of agreement between the City of Shreveport and Grambling University and/or Southern University for the Bayou Classic football game in 2021"
A SECOND request was made on July 18, with SPAR designated for response:
"Please provide all contracts, cooperative endeavor agreements, memorandum of understanding between the City of Shreveport and the Querbes Foundation"
A THIRD request was made on July 18, with Community Development Department designated for response:
"List of the 66 CDBG projects with dollar amount allotted to each
List of the 3 HOME projects with dollar amount allotted for each
List of the 4 HOME-ARP projects with dollar amount allotted for each."
These projects were listed in the Community Development 2025 Annual Action Plan that was approved at the last Shreveport City Council meeting.
A FOURTH request was made on July 18 with Community Development Department designated for response:
"The 2025 HUD Annual Action Plan has a statement that Community Development has 77 projects going on at the same time in 19 targeted neighborhoods.
1. Please provide a list of the targeted neighborhoods
2. Please provide criteria for the selection/designation of a "targeted neighborhood".
As of today July 31, NONE of the requests have been answered. There have been nine (9) working days since the July 18 public records request. There have been NO emails requesting additional time to respond.
An email was sent to Shreveport CAO requesting assistance in getting responses yesterday. He responded yesterday. Dark replied, saying he would try to help get responses. As of this posting NONE of the four requests have been answered.
On a positive note, a public records request made on July 9 was answered this morning. Positive if one considers eight (8) working days versus the three (3) days specified in the Public Records Act.
So...what’s the deal? All the ballyhoo over a new automated public records portal has suddenly evaporated--at least for this requester.
Hopefully the four (4) requests made on July 18 will arrive in my inbox soon. Who knows?