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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Improving Public Engagement And Public Records Management At The Oregon Department Of Environmental Quality, Portland State University. Hatfield School Of Government. Center For Public Service, Phil Keisling, Dan Marriott, Marcus Ingle, Sara Saltzberg, Andrew Dzeguze Oct 2016

Improving Public Engagement And Public Records Management At The Oregon Department Of Environmental Quality, Portland State University. Hatfield School Of Government. Center For Public Service, Phil Keisling, Dan Marriott, Marcus Ingle, Sara Saltzberg, Andrew Dzeguze

Center for Public Service Publications and Reports

In February 2016, researchers from the US Forest Service had detected toxics in moss samples adjacent to several businesses in Portland. This began a series of events that highlighted both the significance of public records requests and the difficulty Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has in responding to complex requests.

The interest in issues related to air toxics put a strain on the capacity of the agency to respond in a timely fashion to the news media as well as citizens groups.

In August 2016, DEQ retained the Center for Public Service (CPS) to provide an outside evaluation of …