Bexar County is putting new guardrails on how much time county employees can spend responding to open records inquiries from a single requester before labor costs are billed.

County officials say the move is a response to overwhelmingly large requests from a small number of individuals who’ve slowed response times for everyone else.

But the new policy comes as a group of government accountability activists has been calling attention to Bexar County’s spotty compliance with open records laws — and now oppose a solution they say punishes requesters to try to solve the problem.

The Texas Public Information Act allows members of the public access to most government records by requesting them from their respective governing bodies.

In the digital era, however, the number and complexity of r

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