Dear City of Menlo Park,
Thank you for your response.
Can we talk over the phone or in person? I can come to Menlo Park to meet in person or we can do a Google Meet. I understand the citys concerns about the scope of the request between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2023.
Scope of CPRA request. The scope of the request is all emails sent from a non Menlo Park email address to any of the email addresses from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2023 as defined in the request. We need this much data to ensure we properly train our LLM across cities and give the region and state the analytics just before Covid, after Covid, and post Covid of sentiment and impact on local governance. This initiative is not just for your city, but we are seeking this production from all cities across the 9 counties forming the San Francisco Bay Area.
PDF production. We can accept PDF production of records in redacted form. However, this is likely going to be labor intensive and inefficient for the city.
Native production preferred. Ideally, we can receive the data in native .PST format through Microsoft Enterprise server. As explained in the California Public Records Act request, in my experience as both a software developer and a California licensed attorney, I understand that obtaining the requested records may not be as difficult of a task as it may initially seem.
Often, city IT departments efficiently maintain such records, typically in Microsoft Outlook .PST files on Microsoft Enterprise servers. To facilitate the production of these records in a manner that is both efficient and secure, I am willing to enter into a limited scope services and confidentiality agreement with the city. We have a similar agreement with Menlo Park.
eDiscovery / Limited Scope confidentiality/services. There are many commercially available, e-Discovery tools such as Logikcull (https://www.logikcull.com/) which can be used to automatically redact (1) personal emails (2) phone numbers (3) offensive content or other information while preserving meta-data. The information will also be autotagged and grouped through our Hiago AI. As a licensed attorney, I am acutely aware of and committed to upholding the privacy and confidentiality standards set forth by the city and the legal profession. This commitment, coupled with my technical expertise, ensures a responsible handling of the records in accordance with all applicable regulations and city policies.
Internal analytical LLM model for the city. Alternatively, similar to how Menlo Park has worked with us, we could provide visibility to internal city staff for redacted portions in the LLM model, so that the city can generate meaningful analytics and target lists before each council or planning meeting. However, that is not what our primary goals are at this point. Our goals are to create a public LLM that uses generative AI and provides the benefits as outlined in our original letter to the city, county, and state.
We already have much of the requested data through Hiago, but want to get emails for the broader set as identified in the letter.
Thank you for considering this request. I look forward to your response and am available for any further discussions or clarifications needed.
Raj
On Mon, Nov 27, 2023 at 4:10 PM City of Menlo Park Public Records Center > wrote:
Dear Raj :
Thank you for your interest in public records of the City of Menlo Park. Your request has been received and is being processed. Your request was submitted to this office on 11/27/2023 and given the reference number P002286-112723 for tracking purposes.
If your request is received after business hours or on a weekend or holiday, the next business day will be considered the date of receipt. The 10-day response period starts with the first calendar day after the date of receipt. If the 10th day falls on a weekend or holiday, the next business day is considered the deadline for responding to the request.
Record Requested: On Mon, Nov 27, 2023 at 12:20 PM Raj Abhyanker > wrote: Dear Public Records Coordinator, I am writing to you to request access to all emails sent to Menlo Park by the public over the past three years since January 2023, and on an ongoing basis, as defined in this request. I am now a resident of Santa Clara County, but lived in San Mateo county in Menlo Park in the relevant time period. This request is made under the California Public Records Act (CPRA). By way of background, I am the inventor of the neighborhood social network. I was the CEO of a predecessor entity to Nextdoor called Fatdoor formed in 2006, which was sold to Google in 2011 after raising money from Stanford professors, the former CEO of PayPal/Intuit, and major Silicon Valley venture capitalists. The concept was reborn as Nextdoor in 2011, and the company continues to license its patents from me. Also, I created the Hiago company in 2019. Hiago is a software that has been used by cities across California to manage public comments and CPRA compliance through real time tagging, publishing, and organizing of emails sent to city governments by residents. For instance, the city of Menlo Park, California, employs Hiago to automate the publication of emails received by the city to adhere to CPRA regulations. They also have a real-time Hiago integration on their city website, which displays incoming emails from residents in real-time. This integration not only identifies offensive content but also utilizes Artificial Intelligence to categorize and compile emails for community engagement purposes. Under the California Public Records Act (CPRA), Government Code Sections 6250 et seq., I am requesting access to, or copies of, records from Menlo Park for the period from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2023. The specifics of my request are detailed in the attached letter. Raj
You can monitor the progress of your request at the link below and youll receive an email when your request has been completed. Again, thank you for using the City of Menlo Park’s Public Records Center.
City of Menlo Park
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