Legal Documents of Maryville

When records are requested for inspection or copying, the records custodian has up to seven (7) business days to determine whether the city can retrieve the records requested and whether the requested records contain any confidential information, and the estimated charge for copying based upon the number of copies and amount of time required, and will be provided a "records production letter," appendix B. Confidential information will be redacted prior to providing for inspection or copying of the requested record.

Within seven (7) business days of a request for records the records custodian shall:

1. Produce the records requested;
2. Deny the records in writing, giving explanation for denial, "records request denial letter," appendix C; or
3. In the case of voluminous requests, provide the requestor, in writing, with an estimated time frame for production and an estimation of duplication costs.

There is no charge assessed to a requester for inspecting a public record. Up to ten (10) pages of black and white standard sized copies of records requested are free of charge to the requestor, with one (1) such set of free copies permitted per person per year. Otherwise, charges for physical copies of records where the copies total more than ten (10) per person per year, in accordance with the office of open records counsel schedule of reasonable charges, are as follows:

1. Fifteen cents ($0.15) per copy for black and white copies.
2. Fifty cents ($0.50) per copy for colored copies.
3. Fifteen cents ($0.15) per copy for accident reports.
4. Maps, plats, electronic data, audio discs, video discs, and all other materials shall be duplicated at actual costs to the city

Due to security concerns, flash drives may not be used to copy electronic data. Electronic copies are available at a rate of fifteen cents ($0.15) per page. Pictures may be taken of requested documents, but only after redaction of personal or confidential information has been done. Due to the costs of review and redaction of such records, copies taken by photo are also charged at a rate of fifteen cents ($0.15) per page.

Payment is to be made in cash, personal check or accepted credit card presented to the City of Maryville prior to receipt of any copies.

Requests for copies requiring less than one (1) hour of municipal employee labor for research, retrieval and duplication are free to the requester. Labor in excess of one (1) hour may be charged by the city, in addition to the cost per copy, as provided in subsection (5) above. The city may require payment in advance of producing voluminous records. Requests for copies of records may not be broken down to multiple requests for the same information in order to qualify for the first free hour. For a request requiring more than one (1) employee to complete, labor charges will be assessed based on the following formula:

In calculating the charge for labor, a department head shall determine the number of hours each employee spent producing a request. The department head shall then subtract the one (1) hour threshold from the number of hours the highest paid employee(s) spent producing the request. The department head will then multiply the total number of hours to be charged for the labor of each employee by that employee's hourly wage. Finally, the department head will add together the totals for all the employees involved in the request and that will be the total amount of labor that can be charged.