[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Commissioners of the City
of Union City 12-21-2004. Amendments noted where applicable.]
New Jersey has adopted the Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A.
47:1A-5, which has as its general purpose making government records
more available to the public than they have been in the past. In certain
instances, the production of voluminous records, archived records,
or records in a format which is not the usual format maintained by
the municipality or other special circumstances is costly and time
consuming. The New Jersey Open Public Records Act permits the municipality
to require the payment of fees, special service charges and/or special
charges as a prerequisite to the production of records requiring extraordinary
time and effort, special equipment or special formatting.
The City Clerk by law is the custodian of records for the City.
Nothing in this chapter shall require the custodian of records
or any other municipal official to examine, analyze, tabulate, or
interpret documents which are subject to production under the New
Jersey Open Public Records Act.
A.
Requests to be in writing. Any requests for documents shall be made
to the City Clerk in writing and preferably on a form established
by the City Clerk for such purposes.
B.
Advance notice of fees, special service charges and special charges;
deposit. Any requester of government records who may be eligible for
the imposition of a fee, special charge or special service charge
under this chapter shall receive advance notice of the amount of fees
and charges before any work is started. Whenever the costs of reproducing
a document exceed $5, the City Clerk shall require payment in full
of such charges before causing the work to begin.
A.
Duplication or other work beyond capability of municipal in-house
work force. Whenever the in-house municipal work force or available
municipal equipment is insufficient to duplicate or produce government
records in a timely fashion, the City Clerk may cause such duplication
or production to be accomplished by outside vendors such as copy centers
or producers of digital images and, in the case of payroll records,
the City's payroll-processing company. If the costs of such duplication
or production charged by such vendors exceed the routine charges set
forth in N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5, the requester shall pay the actual direct
cost of same without any additional surcharge for labor costs.
B.
Special service charges authorized. Whenever government records cannot
be reproduced by regular copying equipment or fulfillment of the request
would involve extraordinary time and effort (for example, where a
large number of records must be recovered from storage or substantive
staff time is required to review, redact, sort and/or assemble records),
charges may be imposed as follows:
C.
Digital records. If a request for governmental records involves production
or conversion of digital or computerized records or film which is
in a medium not routinely used by the agency (i.e., electronic or
film); not routinely developed or maintained by an agency; or requires
a substantial amount of manipulation or programming of information
technology, the requester shall pay fees and special charges incurred
by the City if the conversion is done directly by the City as follows:
