Albany, Oregon · Public records · Neighbor accountability
Make civic duty searchable, useful, and a little easier to start.
Albany Records Project buys the records, indexes the data, and publishes source-backed stories so neighbors can follow the money, read the meeting trail, and audit the systems shaping their blocks.
✓ 100% neighbor-funded✓ Pays record fees, hosting, indexing, and review✓ Verified public ledger after Stripe confirmation
Origin
The local rule book belongs to the people living under it.
This started with local housing disputes in Albany, Oregon, that turned into a public records trail. The trail moved outward into City records, County records, APD search questions, DA review, public-comment access, municipal revenue, and property classification: the everyday civic problem of an official answer that will not show its work.
Our community members spent months learning Oregon public-records law, preserving evidence, and litigating pro se. The lesson was simple and uncomfortable: the rule book is public, but almost no one knows how to use it. This project turns that overwhelm into a searchable path.
"The public rule book only works if the public can afford to use it."
How it works
Follow the thread from question to public record.
We make civic participation practical: ask a clear question, identify the record, fund the fee, publish the source-backed answer, and leave a trail others can search.
Interactive Records Journey
Draft & Scope
Procedural Summary
Requests must be in writing and identify the records sought with reasonable specificity. A clean scope targets exact message-trace parameters, search strings, custodians, and dates to avoid overly broad denials.
Records Desk Pro-Tip
"Ask for the search terms and systems used. The search log behind a reply tells you more than the reply itself."
Active Project Applications
Linn County Blue Ox / Lepman handling audit (Scoping finalized and sent May 22, 2026).
Active tracks · May 2026
What is open right now.
We track municipal requests in real time. Have a confidential record, document, or tip related to these files? Submit a tip securely
April 27 PRR intake & IT nonreceipt claim
Public-records handling audit batch
26PRR008-E challenge
Supplemental search audit
ORS 311.219 property classification
Transient lodging tax records
Blue Ox / Lepman handling audit
Public comment access & archival
Reading room
Reporting that teaches from records, not from certainty.
Every public piece does four things: name a human reason, anchor a fact, teach a point, and leave a clean next question. If a paragraph does none of those, it stays in the long version.
The Record Behind the Answer
When a public body says an emailed records request was flagged and never received by the intended recipients, what records should exist inside its own systems — and what does the public do when the answer to a records request is itself a records question?
Read article Investigative · INVESTIGATIVE_002Three Requests, One Question
What record sits behind the answer from each public body — City, DA, and APD — and how did one neighbor housing dispute become a three-agency records audit?
Read article ExplainerThe Rule Book Is Public
Oregon public-records law in plain language. You do not get a city or county to act by asking nicely. You get them to act by asking, in writing, that they follow their own rules.
Read articleTen dollars can turn a fee estimate into public truth.
Public bodies often charge hundreds of dollars in "estimated research deposits" to keep archives in the dark and discourage deep transparency. We pay those fees directly so neighbor documentation and statutory rule books remain open to all.
Every single dollar of funding directly covers municipal record clerk fees, IT search deposits, pro se appeals, and essential living stipends to keep our neighbor-researchers housed and fed while they do the exhaustive work of public auditing.
See exactly where ten dollars goes.
Unlike political action committees or settlement campaigns, every single dollar we spend is logged in our public monthly ledger and directly pays for records fees and vital living stipends for our neighbor-researchers.
System IT Search Audit
Calculated DeliverableIT specialist search log fees & 2 hours of pro se appeal prep
Pays for specialized IT search log fees to track quarantined messages, and co-funds 2 hours of dedicated pro se appeal compilation.
A neighbor-funded civic desk. Keeping our researchers housed, fed, and focused while they do the exhausting work of public auditing.