New Jersey has adopted the Open Public Records
Act, 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 archived records or records in a format
which is not the usual format maintained by the municipality or other
special circumstances would be costly and time consuming. The New
Jersey 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 for inspection or photocopying
requiring extraordinary time and effort, special equipment or special
formatting.
[Amended 12-28-2010 by Ord. No. 16-10]
The statutory fee schedule shall apply to routine
requests under the Open Public Records Act. The fees of N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5
are hereby incorporated herein as such fee schedule presently exists
or as such fees might appear in future modifications or amendments
of the statute. At present time, fees under N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5 for routine
copies of municipal documents are:
A. Letter-size
pages or smaller: $0.05 per page.
B. Legal-size
page or larger: $0.07 per page.
(1) If actual
costs to produce the paper copy exceed the rates of $0.05 and/or $0.07,
the actual costs of duplication will be charged.
C. Actual postage
for any documents sent by mail.
D. Actual costs
for the envelope for any documents sent by mail.
E. Photographs
will be photocopied at the actual cost. If requests are made for supplicate
photographs, the actual cost of making the photographs shall be charged.
F. Duplication
of videotapes, computer discs, CD-ROMs and/or DVDs will be charged
the actual costs to provide this record.
G. Any document
that has to be retrieved from the off-site record archive facility
will be charged the actual costs to retrieve this document.
Nothing in this article shall require the custodian
of documents 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.
The Borough of Oaklyn may be compelled by New
Jersey law to produce or duplicate governmental records, but no compliance
with these legal obligations shall be deemed to constitute a license,
sublicense or waiver of copyright laws.