Township of Delaware, NJ Records, Public Access to

The government records of the Township shall be accessible for inspection, examination and copying in accordance with the Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., as amended from time to time.

§ 278-2 Purpose.

The purpose of this chapter is to set forth the Township's fee schedule for obtaining copies of government records and the Township's special service charges to be assessed in appropriate circumstances.

§ 278-3 Definitions.

As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meaning indicated:

GOVERNMENT RECORD(S) or RECORD(S)

Any information subject to public inspection which is maintained by the Township in written, audio, video, electronic or other form and as defined by the Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq.

SPECIAL SERVICE CHARGE

A charge, in addition to the actual cost of duplicating the government record(s), which shall reflect the expense associated with extensive use of Township information, technology or resources, or the extensive clerical or supervisory assistance by Township personnel necessary to accommodate requests to examine and/or provide copies of the record(s), and as defined by the Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5c and 47:1A-5d.

§ 278-4 Fees for copies of government records.

[Amended 9-13-2010 by Ord. No. 2010-11]

The fees for copies of government records (in person and by mail) shall be:

Purpose. The purpose of this section is to establish policies and procedures for the collection of fees associated with copies of government records.

Persons seeking photocopies of Delaware Township government records shall remit a copying fee as follows:

	Document	Cost
	Letter size or smaller	$0.05 per page
	Legal size or larger	$0.07 per page
	Maps and documents larger than 11 inches by 17 inches	Actual cost at reproduction facility
	Color copies	Actual cost at reproduction facility
	Computer disk copies	$1
	Documents copied at reproduction facility including Master Plan and Land Use Ordinance	Actual cost at reproduction facility

The cost of postage shall be added to the copying charge for any document mailed to the requestor.

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 this section 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, Delaware Township may charge, in addition to the actual cost of duplicating the record, a special service charge that shall be reasonable and shall be based upon the actual direct cost of providing the copy or copies. The requestor shall have the opportunity to review and object to the charge prior to it being incurred.

§ 278-5 Police Department records and discovery requests.

The fees set forth in § 278-4 above shall govern the production of copies of Police Department records and discovery in municipal court matters, except as follows:

In cases where the record or discovery must be obtained from an entity other than the Township, the actual cost paid to the other entity shall be borne by the requestor.

If copies of vehicle accident reports are requested other than in person, an additional fee of $5 for the first three pages and $1 per page thereafter will be charged. In such cases, the postage and mailing fees identified in § 278-4E above shall not apply.

§ 278-6 Fees for records in Tax Office.

[Amended 12-27-2011 by Ord. No. 2011-16]

A fee of $5 shall be charged for the initial duplicate copy of a tax bill.

A fee of $25 shall be charged for each subsequent copy of a tax bill for the same tax year requested by the same person or organization pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:4-64.

A fee of $100 shall be charged for each duplicate tax sale certificate pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:5-52.1.

In accordance with N.J.S.A. 54:5-54, the Tax Collector shall provide to any person entitled to redeem a certificate pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:5-54 two calculations of the amount required for redemption within a calendar year at no cost. For each subsequent calculation requested from the Tax Collector, there shall be a fee of $50. A request for a redemption calculation shall be made in writing to the Tax Collector.

In accordance with N.J.S.A. 54:5-97.1, the Tax Collector may charge a lien holder of a tax lien $50 for the calculation of the amount due to redeem the tax lien as required pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:5-97.1. Any request for a redemption calculation shall specify the date to be used for the calculation which shall be the date of the notice. Neither the Tax Collector nor the municipality shall be liable for an incorrect calculation. The fee paid to the municipality shall not become part of the lien and shall not be passed on to any party entitled to redeem pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:5-54.

§ 278-7 Special service charges.

A special service charge may be applied by the Custodian of Records or his/her designee in the following circumstances:

(1)

When 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 is such that the record cannot be reproduced by ordinary copying equipment in ordinary business size or involves an extraordinary expenditure of time and effort to accommodate the request;

(2)

When a request is for a government record in a medium not routinely used by the Township;

(3)

When a request is for a government record not routinely developed or maintained by the Township; or

(4)

When a request for a government record requires a substantial amount of manipulation or programming of information technology by the Township and the cost of such manipulation or programming is not otherwise included in the fee or fees listed in §§ 278-4 through 278-6 above.

The special service charge rate for supervisory, programming and/or clerical services shall be charged per hour and as follows:

(1)

The hourly rate shall be the hourly wage of the employee conducting the supervisory, programming and/or clerical services as set by the Township by salary ordinance and/or PBA or other collective bargaining agreement(s).

(2)

The hourly wages of salaried personnel shall be calculated by dividing the employee's annual salary as set by Township ordinance and/or PBA or other collective bargaining agreement(s) by 26 (weeks) and then dividing that biweekly pay by the number of hours worked in a biweekly period.