[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Brigantine 12-21-2005
by Ord. No. 32-2005. Amendments noted where applicable.]
A.Â
The individual filling the position of Municipal Clerk
shall be the Custodian of Public Records for the City of Brigantine.
B.Â
The following individuals shall be designated Deputy
Custodians of Public Records in their respective departments:
(1)Â
Police Chief and/or his designee.
(2)Â
Fire Chief and/or his designee.
(3)Â
Tax Assessor and/or her designee.
(4)Â
Construction Official and/or his designee.
(5)Â
Purchasing Agent and/or his designee.
(6)Â
Chief Financial Officer and/or his designee.
(7)Â
Superintendent of Public Works and/or his designee.
(8)Â
Tax Collector and/or her designee.
The Custodian of Records and all Deputy Custodians of Records shall
not physically give a government record to a member of the public without
first advising the City Manager of the same.
The following shall be charged for the copying and reproduction of public
records. Copies of public records shall be made available upon payment of
the following fees, which shall be based upon the total number of pages, or
parts thereof, to be purchased, without regard to the number of records being
copied:
Whenever the nature, format, manner of collation or volume of a government
record(s) embodied in the form of printed matter to be inspected, examined
or copied pursuant to this section is such that the record cannot be reproduced
by ordinary document-copying equipment in ordinary business size and requires
outsourcing for reproduction or copying, the actual cost charged for such
outsourcing shall be the charge paid for said outsourcing and shall be paid
by the individual or entity making the request for such public record. The
first sentence of this section shall be contained on the Open Public Records
Act request form currently used in the City of Brigantine and shall be preprinted
on the same, and said form as amended by this chapter is specifically adopted
as the official Open Public Records Act request form of the City of Brigantine.
A.Â
Any person shall have the right, during regular business
hours and under the supervision of the Custodian of Records or a designee
thereof, to inspect or have copied any public record. Should the actual time
that the Custodian of Records or representative(s) thereof spend supervising
or copying any public documents pursuant to a single request be in excess
of seven hours of employee time, including locating such document or documents,
any hour or part thereof in excess of said seven hours shall be considered
an extraordinary expenditure of time and effort and the individual requesting
such public document(s) shall be charged, in addition to the actual cost of
duplicating the document(s), a special service charge for each hour in excess
of said seven hours at the cost of $25 per hour or the actual hourly rate
of the employee and/or employees supervising and/or copying said documents,
whichever is less. A copy of the second sentence of this subsection shall
be included on the Open Public Records Act request form used by the City of
Brigantine so that any requestor shall have the opportunity to review the
same and object to said charge prior to same being incurred.
B.Â
If an individual requests a record from the City of Brigantine
in a medium not routinely used by the City of Brigantine or not routinely
developed or maintained by the City of Brigantine or requiring a substantial
amount of manipulation or programming of information technology by the City
of Brigantine, said requestor shall be charged in addition to the actual costs
of duplication a special charge in the amount of $25 per hour or the actual
hourly rate of the employee or the employees performing said function, per
hour, whichever is less. A copy of the first sentence of this subsection shall
be added to the Open Public Records Act request form used in the City of Brigantine.
C.Â
In addition to any and all charges as set forth above,
if an individual requests a reproduction of a video tape, audio tape, or compact
disk, said requestor shall be given the opportunity to supply a blank video
tape, blank audio tape, or blank compact disk, respectively, which will be
used for such reproduction.
(1)Â
If the individual making such a request indicates that
they do not wish to provide the video tape, audio tape or compact disk, as
the case may be, the following charges shall apply regarding the purchase
of the same for reproduction by the City of Brigantine and shall be in addition
to any and all amounts which may be charged pursuant to this chapter:
(2)Â
The above portion of this subsection shall be listed
on the Open Public Records Act request form used in the City of Brigantine.
The seven-business-day period pursuant to which an Open Public Records Act
request must be responded to shall begin in the case of video tapes, audio
tapes and compact disks from the date that the Custodian of Records or a Deputy
Custodian of Records is advised that the requestor shall not supply such video
tape, audio tape or compact disk or from the date that the individual requestor
supplies such video tape, audio tape or compact disk, respectively.
Any request for public records shall be responded to in seven business
days by either providing the public document(s) requested or by providing
the requestor with an interim report indicating the estimated time that will
be required to provide the records if the same cannot be produced within seven
business days from said request.
For the purpose of this chapter, the term "public records" includes
those records determined to be public in accordance with the Open Public Records
Act and subject to all exclusions and deletions as set forth therein.
The Custodian of Records shall prominently post in public view in a
part or parts of the Clerks Office that are open to or frequented by the public
a statement that sets forth in clear, concise and specific terms the right
to appeal denial of, or failure to provide, access to a government record
by any person for inspection, examination, or copying or for purchase of copies
thereof and the procedure by which an appeal may be filed.