L.A. Times invites readers to submit public, gov’t documents
The L.A. Times is trying to engage its readership days after the paper published a full-scale investigative series thanks to public records sent in by two readers. The Times wants to build on that momentum and today launched a guide for citizens to find and submit public documents from local agencies.
The guide writes, “The Times encourages readers to share government records you consider newsworthy or interesting. Send us documents and a Times staffer will review them and post them to this site, which also includes files obtained by our reporters.”
Possible records include salary reports, tax summaries, closed session meeting notes, employee contracts and many more.
The Times included a troubleshooting page to offer tips on getting the docs quicker and how to handle research exemptions.
Unveiling this call for citizen engagement comes days after the Times published an investigation into the salaries held by several city councillors in Bell, California. One document found how ex-City Administrator Robert Rizzo concealed high salaries, but a journalist didn’t find the paperwork; a reader did, and he was credited for assisting with the newspaper series.
In an article announcing the initiative, the Times says it “hopes this page will serve as a resource for those seeking information from their governments and become a place where people can share the information they’ve dug up.”