FOIA / Public Records Request Tracking & Response System
A done-for-you public sector automation built for the City / County Administrator, connecting Jotform, Slack, and Airtable so the work below happens on its own.
What this automation does, step by step
Every public records request submitted through the portal, by email, or in person is automatically assigned a unique tracking number, acknowledged to the requester with a response timeline, and routed to the correct department for record retrieval.
The city administrator and department heads see a live dashboard of all open requests, their statutory due dates, and current status, so no request is discovered to be overdue when a journalist or attorney follows up.
Extensions are automatically documented and communicated to the requester before the original deadline, keeping the agency in compliance with open records statutes without anyone manually managing a spreadsheet.
- GovQA or a public records portal, or Jotform
- Zapier or Make.com
- Airtable or Google Sheets (request tracking dashboard)
- Email (requester acknowledgment and status updates)
- Slack (department routing and overdue alerts)
Using different software? We build around what you already have, so you never have to switch tools to automate.
The manual way vs. the automated way
Without automation
Done manually, a city / county administrator has to remember to follow up on every case individually, often relying on memory, phone calls, and whatever notes didn't get lost. Over a month, those small manual steps add up to a significant amount of lost time.
With this automation
- Expiration and renewal alerts on a 90, 60, and 30 day countdown
- Signature and document chasers that escalate on their own
- Deadline tracking for filings, permits, and inspections
- An automatic audit trail of every notice sent
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