[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Hackensack 11-25-2013 by Ord. No. 23-2013. Amendments noted where applicable.]
The City of Hackensack ("City") hereby creates a City Public
Records Policy governing public records as determined by the Open
Public Records Act (OPRA), N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq. Nothing in this
chapter shall require the certification, reproduction, or issuance
of any copy of any record unless said record is a public record.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1, "government record," hereinafter
"public record," means any paper, written or printed book, document,
drawing, map, plan, photograph, microfilm, data-processed or image-processed
document, information stored or maintained electronically or by sound
recording or in a similar device, or any copy thereof, that has been
made, maintained, received, or kept on file in the course of official
business by any officer, commission, agency or authority of the City
or of any political subdivision thereof.
"Public record" does not mean:
Records of a personal nature regarding City officials, employees
and/or other applicable individuals;
Medical records of City officials, employees and/or other applicable
individuals;
All records exempted by state and/or federal statutes, rules
and/or regulations;
All records exempted by presidential and/or gubernatorial executive
order;
Confidential police investigation reports;
Work product or notes of City officials/employees;
Council closed-session minutes involving personnel matters.
Council open-session minutes shall not be considered public records
until such time as they are approved by the City Council. Council
closed-session minutes, other than involving personnel matters, shall
not be considered public records until such time as they are approved
by the City Council and the matter(s) in question have been concluded
pursuant to the provisions of N.J.S.A. 10:4-6 et seq. A report prepared
for review by the Mayor and City Council shall not be deemed a public
record until at least seven calendar days after disbursement of the
report by the City Clerk to the Mayor and Council or the next Council
meeting, whichever is later; and
All records which are not included in the definition of "government
records" and are deemed to be confidential pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1
et seq., where applicable.
A.
Records, generally.
(1)
Record series. Records should be retained, categorized, and inventoried
by record series. "Record series" is a group of identical or related
records that are filed together and can be evaluated as a unit to
determine their retention period. Within a record series, there is
no reason to know who generated or received the record, nor what subject
matter was discussed; only the general function and overall content
of the records.
(2)
Inventory. Record series should be complied into a list, or "inventory,"
with descriptions and supporting information for each record series.
(3)
Record retention schedules. Every record series must be assigned
a retention period and method of final disposition.
(4)
Disposition. Pursuant to the retention schedule, records may be physically
destroyed or transferred to another location. Where records are earmarked
for destruction, the Clerk must submit a Request and Authorization
for Records Disposal form to ensure that the records have outlived
their value to the public.
B.
E-mails.
(1)
E-mails are not exempt from OPRA regulations. The message sent through
the electronic medium constitutes a public record, unless the subject
matter within the electronic submission falls within an OPRA exemption.
The retention or disposition of same is based on the information it
contains or the purpose the message serves.
(3)
Nonrecord messages. E-mail messages that do not meet the definition of "public record" pursuant to § 35-2 and as defined by OPRA are not public records. These messages may be deleted at any time unless they become part of any official record.
(4)
Transient messages. Transient messages include e-mail messages that
have little administrative value, do not set policy, do not establish
guidelines or procedures, do not certify a transaction, and do not
become a receipt. These messages should be retained until they are
no longer of administrative value and then destroyed.
(5)
Intermediate messages. Intermediate messages have more significant
administrative, legal, or fiscal value than transient messages but
do not fall into the "permanent" category. These messages should be
retained for the appropriate period of time set forth in the records
retention schedule approved by the State Records Committee or the
General Retention Schedule.
(6)
Permanent messages. Permanent messages have significant administrative,
legal, or fiscal value. They should be further defined by a) executive
correspondence; b) departmental policies and procedures; and c) minutes
of boards, commissions, and other official bodies. These messages
should be retained permanently, with the exception of executive correspondence,
which need only be retained for three years, at which time it should
be transferred to archives.
A.
The City Clerk shall be the municipality's custodian of records.
She shall ensure that all public records are readily accessible. The
custodian has a duty to search the files and find the government records
specifically identified in the request.
B.
Each department shall designate a department custodian to serve as liaison between the Clerk and his respective department. Each department custodian shall timely respond to the Clerk's request for any records the department may possess so that the Clerk may respond to requests, pursuant to § 35-6.
C.
The Clerk shall document all attempts to access records from other
departments or personnel. If the Clerk has not received the documents
within the time required to respond to the request, the Clerk shall
inform the requestor of all attempts make to access the documents.
The Clerk will not be responsible if another employee obstructs access
so long as she can prove that attempts were made to access the records.
A.
The municipality shall make available an OPRA request form to facilitate
citizen's filing of requests. This form must include:
(1)
Space for the name, address, and phone number of the requestor;
(2)
Space for a brief description of the government record sought;
(3)
Space for the custodian to indicate which record will be made available,
when the record will be available, and the fees to be charged;
(4)
Specific directions and procedures for requesting a record;
(5)
A statement as to whether prepayment of fees or a deposit is required;
(6)
The time period within which the public agency is required by OPRA and § 35-6 to make the record available;
(7)
A statement of the requestor's right to challenge a decision
by the public agency to deny access and the procedure for filing an
appeal;
(8)
Space for the custodian to list reasons if a request is denied in
whole or in part;
(9)
Space for the requestor to sign and date the form; and
(10)
Space for the custodian to sign and date the form if the request
is fulfilled or denied.
B.
All requests should be made using the form approved by the City;
however, the Clerk shall not deny a valid request solely because it
was not made on the City's request form.
C.
All requests shall be directed to the City Clerk in her position
as custodian of records. Any department heads or other City officials/employees
in receipt of a request other than the City Clerk shall immediately
direct the request to the City Clerk's office, which will serve
as the repository of such requests and the dissemination of said forms
to obtain public records not within the Clerk's control/possession.
D.
A valid request must:
A.
Upon receipt of a request for public records, the Clerk will endeavor
to respond to said request within five business days of the receipt
of said request. "Business days" are defined as Monday through Friday,
excluding holidays and weekends.
B.
Pursuant to OPRA, the Clerk shall respond to all requests within
seven business days of her receipt. Where a request was first delivered
to another employee and subsequently directed to the Clerk, the seven-day
period shall not begin to run until the Clerk receives the request.
C.
Where the Clerk needs additional time to respond to requests, she
shall request same in writing within seven days of receipt of request.
Requests for additional time must provide a legitimate reason for
make such request and must provide an anticipated date upon which
records will be provided.
D.
The Clerk shall respond to requests made anonymously when the requestor
appears before the Clerk to receive the response.
E.
Failure to respond within seven days or by the later date requested
by the Clerk will be deemed a denial of the request.
Not all requests for public records do, in fact, lead to the
copying, review and/or release of such records. A public record may
be a public record under common law but may not be a public record
under N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., or vice versa, or it may be or may
not be a public record under any other legal statute, rules, regulation
and/or court decision. The City Clerk shall seek the opinion of the
designated City Attorney as to whether or not a record is public if
there is any question as to its potential copying, review, and/or
release. The City Clerk's actions on this type of matter shall
be guided by such legal opinion.
B.
Granting access.
(1)
Medium conversion. The Clerk shall permit access to the records in the medium requested. If records are not maintained in the requested medium, the Clerk must convert the records to the requested medium at the cost of the requestor, based on the charges set forth in § 35-9.
(2)
Immediate access and office hours. The Clerk shall permit immediate access to budgets, bills, vouchers, contracts, and government salary information to be inspected, examined, or copied by any person during the regular business hours. If immediate access cannot be provided, the Clerk must provide a legitimate reason in writing as to why they are not immediately available. Legitimate reasons include the documents being in storage or in use or the requestor has requested a medium conversion. All other documents, if access will be granted, should be provided pursuant to § 35-6.
C.
Denying access. The Clerk shall specifically state in writing any
reason for which the request has been denied. A request may be denied
in whole or by redaction.
(1)
Access may be denied for the following reasons:
(a)
Documents fall within an OPRA exemption. The specific exemption
must be stated in the denial;
(b)
The request was overly broad. Records that are overly broad
or do not specify identifiable records thereby requiring the Clerk
to research on behalf of the requestor will be denied; or
(c)
The request would cause a substantial disruption to agency operations.
Before denying access on this basis, the Clerk must first attempt
to reach a reasonable solution with the requestor that accommodates
the interests of both parties.
D.
Seeking clarification. A Clerk may seek, in writing within seven
days of receipt of original request, clarification of an overly broad
or unclear request.
A.
The Council may from time to time, by resolution and pursuant to
OPRA, establish fees to be charged to any person applying to copy
any municipal record which he may be legally entitled to copy or utilize
the services of municipal employees.
B.
All requests for public records, except for requests by City employees/officials
acting in their official capacity and nonprofit organizations, shall
be subject to the City's policy as to copying costs:
(1)
Letter size pages or smaller: $0.05 per page.
(2)
Legal size pages or larger: $0.07 per page.
(3)
Faxes and e-mails: free of charge.
(4)
Other materials (CD, DVD, etc.): actual cost of material.
(5)
All videotape reproduction shall be subject to a copying fee of $10
for each reproduced tape. All videotapes are to be supplied by the
person making such a request. If an individual/entity does not supply
a tape for recording, no such reproduction will occur.
(6)
Special service charges may be charged for extraordinary requests.
Extraordinary requests include providing copies that cannot be reproduced
by ordinary copying equipment in ordinary business size or accommodating
requests that involve an extraordinary expenditure of time and effort.
Charges must be reasonable and must reflect the actual direct cost,
meaning the hourly rate of the lowest-level employee capable of fulfilling
the request.
Requestors denied access to records may either file a complaint
in Superior Court within 45 days of denial of access or file a complaint
with the Government Records Council at any time after access has been
denied. An appeal may be filed with either, but not both.
Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-11, any public official, employee,
or custodian who knowingly and willfully violates OPRA and unreasonably
denies access to records will be personally fined $1,000. This fine
cannot be paid by the City or agency.