Whenever the nature, format, manner of collation
or volume of a government record embodied in the form of printed matter
to be inspected, examined, or copied pursuant to OPRA (Open Public
Records Act), N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., is such that the record cannot
be reproduced by ordinary document copying equipment in ordinary business
size or involves an extraordinary expenditure of time and effort to
accommodate the request, including but not limited to retrieval of
documents from storage or which have been archived, the custodian
of records, as defined by OPRA, shall advise the requester of the
estimate of charges, which shall include the actual cost of duplicating
the records and a special service charge that shall be reasonable
and shall be based upon the actual direct cost of providing the copy
or copies. In the event the requester objects to the charge after
having reviewed same, the custodian of records shall not incur said
charges until an agreement is reached between the requester and the
custodian of records.
In the event that an OPRA request involves the
reproduction and/or conversion from the medium in which the document
requested currently exists into a medium not routinely used by the
municipality, not routinely developed or maintained by the municipality
or requires a substantial amount of manipulation or programming or
information technology, the custodian of records shall either convert
the document to the medium requested or provide a copy in some other
meaningful medium as provided by OPRA. In the event that the requester
refuses to accept a copy in some other meaningful medium the municipality
is able to convert the documents into, the custodian of records shall
advise the requester of the actual cost of duplication, a special
service charge that shall be reasonable and shall be based on the
cost for any extensive use of information technology or for the labor
cost of personnel providing the service that is actually incurred
by the municipality or attributable to the municipality for the programming,
clerical and supervisory assistance required, or both. This chapter
shall also apply to requests for documents which the municipality
is unable to reproduce in-house due to the document's existing unusual
size or medium, including but not limited to blueprints, plans, film,
slides, CD-ROMs and the like.
The custodian of records is authorized to solicit
and receive estimates in accordance with local public contracts law
from third-party document service providers to effectuate OPRA requests
which fall within the scope of this chapter, and any estimates from
said third-party service providers shall be transmitted to the requester
for his/her consideration and review.
The custodian of records is authorized to solicit
and receive applications from persons desirous of being employed on
a part-time basis, at a rate to be set forth in the Salary Ordinance,
to aid in the fulfillment of OPRA requests which fall within the scope
of this chapter and to present same to the governing body for its
review and action. A list of potential part-time employees shall be
kept by the custodian of records, to be called upon when needed in
accordance with this chapter.