A.
Purpose. The purpose of this section is to provide a fee structure
for digital recordings of minutes, frequently requested of the various
boards, committees and commissions of the Township of Howell.
[Amended 10-18-2022 by Ord. No. O-22-62]
New Jersey has adopted the Open Public Records Act, "OPRA,"
N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1, which has as its general purpose making government
records more available to the public than they have been in the past.
Through N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5, OPRA permits municipalities to require the
payment of fees and special service charges as a prerequisite to the
production of records. In accordance with OPRA, when a request for
records is made via OPRA, the following fees shall be assessed:
A.
Except as otherwise provided by law or regulation, the following
fees shall be assessed for the duplication of a government record
embodied in the form of printed matter:
B.
Except as provided in Subsection E of this section, electronic copies of records (i.e., records sent via email and fax) shall be provided free of charge, provided the Township is able to provide the requested materials electronically.
[Amended 9-12-2023 by Ord. No. 23-26]
C.
Mailing costs to ship copied records to requestors will be based
on their selected shipping means (U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, or UPS)
and be the direct costs for shipping.
D.
The Township
shall assess a special service charge when the nature, format, manner
of collation, or volume of records to be collected, redacted and produced
involves extraordinary time and effort. See N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(c). In
accordance with OPRA, special service charges shall be based upon
the actual direct cost of providing the records, including the cost
of materials, technology, and labor. The Township shall provide a
requestor an estimate of the special service charge prior to incurring
the charge. The Township may request a deposit from the requestor
prior to processing any OPRA special service charge.
E.
Camera footage. When body-worn camera/police vehicle camera footage
is requested from Howell Police Department, the footage generally
requires review for possible redaction.
[Added 9-12-2023 by Ord. No. 23-26]
(1)
For every one hour of camera footage requested, it shall be assumed
that three hours were required to review the footage for redaction
purposes.
(2)
Requests of camera footage will be charged a fee of $25 per hour
of review for redaction purposes.
(3)
Camera footage review fees shall be billable in half-hour increments.
(4)
Requests of body-worn/vehicle camera footage with run times of less
than 1.5 hours shall be provided free of charge.
(5)
Prior to review and production of recorded camera footage, the requester
shall be provided with an estimated charge for production of the footage.
In order for the review and production to proceed, the requester shall
provide Howell Police with a deposit in the amount of 50% of the estimated
charge.
[Amended 4-6-2010 by Ord. No. O-10-07]
A.
Duplicate copies of tax bills. It is hereby established that a fee
of $5 shall be charged for the first duplicate copy of a tax bill
requested by a mortgagee, servicing organization and/or property tax
processing organization and $25 for any subsequent duplicates in any
one tax year. Said fee shall be paid when the request for the duplicate
is made and prior to issuance thereof. No fee shall be charged to
the property owner for the initial duplicate copy normally provided.
B.
Duplicate copies of tax sale certificates. It is hereby established
pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:5-52.1 et seq. that in case of the destruction
or loss of a tax title certificate which was issued by the Township
at a tax sale held in the Township, the Township Tax Collector shall
issue and execute a new certificate of tax sale in place of the one
which has been destroyed or lost. The duplicate certificate will be
issued provided the Tax Collector shall have been duly authorized
to do so by a resolution of the governing body, after an affidavit
of lost tax sale certificate has been executed by the lien holder.
There shall appear on the new certificate a statement that it is a
duplicate of the original one which was destroyed or lost and the
date of said original certificate and the tax sale upon which it was
issued and the name and the title of the officer who issued the same.
The fee for such a duplicate certificate shall be $100. Said fee shall
be paid when the request for duplicate is made and prior to the issuance
thereof. The time limit within which the right to redeem from any
such tax sale in which a duplicate certificate has been issued shall
be the same as though the original certificate had not been destroyed
or lost. A duplicate certificate shall be valid and effectual to all
intents and purposes as though it were the original; and in the event
the original is thereafter found the same shall be canceled forthwith
by the Township Tax Collector.
C.
In accordance
with N.J.S.A. 54:5-54, the Tax Collector shall provide to any party
entitled to redeem a certificate pursuant to this section (N.J.S.A.
54:5-54) two calculations of the amount required for redemption within
a calendar year at no cost. For each subsequent calculation requested
from the Tax Collector, there shall be a fee of $50. A request for
a redemption calculation shall be made in writing to the Tax Collector.
D.
In accordance
with N.J.S.A. 54:5-97.1, the Tax Collector may charge a lienholder
of a tax lien $50 for the calculation of the amount due to redeem
the tax lien as required pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:5-97.1. Any request
for a redemption calculation shall specify the date to be used for
the calculation, which shall be the date of the notice. Neither the
Tax Collector or the municipality shall be liable for an incorrect
calculation. The fee paid to the municipality shall not become part
of the lien and shall not be passed on to any party entitled to redeem
pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:5-54.
A.
In lieu of other imposition of copy fees, pursuant to schedules of
fees as permitted by state law, for day-by-day requests for companies
such as title search companies, the Tax Collector's office may make
available an online look-up system whereby users shall have one-year
access after being issued a global PIN number or, alternately, the
user will be permitted to install a software package providing for
automatic file transfer service.
B.
The cost of said services offered by the Tax Collector shall be $1,500
per year for global PIN access or $1,500 plus the cost of installation
of a software package, preapproved by the Township for security purposes,
for the aforedescribed automatic file transfer service.
C.
The purpose of this section is the more effective use of Township
manpower by replacing, when possible, current labor-intensive requirements
of personal review of requests for information and providing print-out
materials at the rate of $0.05 per page for letter-sized pages and
smaller; $0.07 per page for legal-sized pages and larger; where the
actual costs to produce paper copies exceed the rates of $0.05 and
$0.07, may charge the actual cost of duplication thereafter by utilizing
the electronic database at a fixed rate without the attendant labor
costs, in compliance with OPRA requests.
[Amended 4-6-2010 by Ord. No. O-10-07; 1-18-2011 by Ord. No.
O-11-01]
[Amended 8-20-2013 by Ord. No. O-13-18; 8-14-2018 by Ord. No. O-18-20]
It is hereby established that the following fees shall be charged
by the Township for the following documents:
D.
Bid specifications.
(1)
Fee for purchase of bid specifications for goods and services: $25.
(2)
Fee for purchase of any other bid specifications, including but not
limited to construction projects or any other capital improvement
projects, shall be as follows:
(a)
Full bid specifications with one to 15 plan sheets 24 by 36
shall be $100 and each additional 24 by 36 plan sheet in excess of
15 shall be $5.
(b)
Full bid specifications with one to 15 plan sheets 30 by 42
or larger shall be $125 and each additional 30 by 42 plan sheet in
excess of 15 shall be $6.
It is hereby established that the following fees shall be charged
by the Township for the following land use documents:
The following fees shall be charged for certified copies of
vital statistics from the Registrar:
A.
Burial permit fee in the amount of: $5.
B.
Certified copy of marriage certificate: $25.
C.
Certified copy of birth certificate: $25.
D.
Certified copy of death certificate: $25.
E.
Certified copy of civil union certificate: $25.
F.
Marriage license/civil union: $28 ($3 to remain with municipality,
and $25 to the state for the Battered Women's Shelter).
[Amended 1-18-2011 by Ord. No. O-11-01; 10-18-2022 by Ord. No. O-22-62]
All fees charged by the Township Police Department shall be assessed and charged in accordance with § 139-6 of the Township Code.
