Village of Rothschild, WI Records

Legal custodian.

The Village Clerk is hereby designated as the legal custodian of the Village and is vested with full legal power to render decisions and carry out the Village's public records responsibilities pursuant to Ch. 19, Subchapter II, Wis. Stats.

(2)

Subsection A(1) above notwithstanding, an elective official is the legal custodian of his or her records and the records of his or her office. However, an elective official may designate an employee to act as the legal custodian.

(3)

Subsection A(1) above notwithstanding, the chairperson of a committee of elective officials, or the chairperson's designee, is the legal custodian of the records of the committee. Similarly, the cochairpersons of a joint committee of elective officials, or their designees, are the legal custodians of the records of the committee.

Public access to records.

(1)

The public may obtain information and access to records in the custody of the clerk or other appropriate legal custodian, make requests for records, or obtain copies of records, and learn the costs of obtaining copies of records from the Clerk or other appropriate legal custodian during the regular office hours of the Village.

(2)

The legal custodian may require supervision during inspection or may impose other reasonable restrictions on the manner of access to an original record if the record is irreplaceable or easily damaged.

(3)

The Village is not required to create a new record by extracting information from existing records and compiling the information in a new format, except that: any requester has a right to receive a copy of a record which is in the form of a comprehensible audio recording substantially as audible as the original or the Village may instead provide a transcript of the recording to the requester if he or she requests; any requester has a right to receive a copy of information contained in the record assembled and reduced to written form on paper if it is not in a readily comprehensible form; and if a record contains information that is subject to disclosure under § 19.35(1)(a) or (am), Wis. Stats., and information that is not subject to such disclosure, the Village shall provide the information that is subject to disclosure and delete the information that is not subject to disclosure from the record before release.

(4)

The Village shall provide a requestor with facilities comparable to those used by its employees to inspect, copy and abstract the record during established office hours. However, the Village is not required to purchase or lease photocopying, duplicating, photographic or other equipment or to provide a separate room for the inspection, copying or abstracting of records.

(5)

The Village will impose a fee upon the requester of a copy of a record which may not exceed the actual, necessary and direct cost of reproduction and transcription of the record, unless a fee is otherwise specifically established or authorized to be established by law. Actual, necessary and direct fees for public records requests shall be charged to requestors as follows:

(a)

The costs of photocopying shall be $0.25 per page.

(b)

Other methods of reproduction, including but not limited to photographic or transcriptions, shall be at cost.

(c)

Computer programming expenses required to respond to a request shall be at cost.

(d)

Mailing or shipping expenses required to respond to a request shall be at cost.

(e)

Staff time calculated on the pay rate of the lowest paid employee capable of performing the task.

(f)

Locating a record if the actual cost therefor exceeds $50.

(g)

The legal custodian shall estimate the cost of all applicable fees and require a prepayment if such estimate exceeds $5.

(h)

The Village may provide copies of a record without charge or at a reduced charge where the legal custodian determines that waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest.

(i)

Elected and appointed officials of the Village shall not be required to pay for public records they may reasonably require for the proper performance of their official duties.

(j)

Continuing or ongoing requests are not possible. Requests can only be made and fulfilled for records that exist at the time the request is made.

Access procedures.

(1)

A request to inspect or copy a record shall be made to the legal custodian.

(2)

A request is deemed sufficient if it reasonably describes the requested record or the information requested. A request for a record without a reasonable limitation as to subject matter or length of time represented by the record does not constitute a sufficient request and may be denied for those reasons. However, nothing herein this chapter shall prevent the legal custodian from contacting the record requestor in an attempt to better identify what the person is seeking.

(3)

Upon request for any record, a legal custodian shall as soon as practicable and without unnecessary delay either fulfill the request or notify the requester of the Village's determination to deny the request in whole or in part and the reasons therefor.

(4)

A requester may be required to show acceptable identification only when the requested record is being kept at a private residence or whenever security reasons or federal law or regulations require it. Otherwise, no request may be refused because the person making the request is unwilling to be identified or to state the purpose of the request.

(5)

A request may be made orally or in writing and need not be made in person. If a request is made orally, the Village may deny the request orally unless a demand for a written statement of the reasons denying the request is made by the requester within five business days of the oral denial. If the Village denies a written request in whole or in part, the requester shall receive from the Village a written statement of the reasons for denying the written request. Every written denial of a request by the Village shall inform the requester that if the request for the record was made in writing, then the determination is subject to review by mandamus under § 19.37(1), Wis. Stats., or upon application to the attorney general or a district attorney.

(6)

No record may be destroyed after the receipt of a request for inspection or copying of the record until after the request is granted or until at least 60 days after the date that the request is denied or, if the requester is a committed or incarcerated person, until at least 90 days after the date that the request is denied. Upon written notice that an action relating to a record has been commenced under § 19.37, Wis. Stats., the record may not be destroyed until after the order of the court in relation to such record is issued and the deadline for appealing that order has passed, or, if appealed, until after the order of the court hearing the appeal is issued. If the court orders the production of any record and the order is not appealed, the record may not be destroyed until after the request for inspection or copying is granted.

(7)

In limited circumstances a request can experience minor delay in order to properly notify a record subject pursuant to § 19.356, Wis. Stats.

Limitations on right of access.

(1)

Although there is a presumption of access to a record, the legal custodian must also consider whether there are any explicit rights or prohibitions to access in statute or case law, and finally by a balancing test weighing possible harm against benefit to the public.

(2)

If a record contains both information that may be made public and information that may not be made public, the custodian shall provide the information that may be made public and redact the information that may not be made public from the record before release. The custodian shall confer with the Village attorney prior to releasing any such record and shall follow the guidance of the Village attorney when separating out the exempt material. If in the judgment of the custodian and the Village attorney there is no feasible way to separate the exempt material from the nonexempt material without unreasonably jeopardizing nondisclosure of the exempt material, the entire record shall be withheld from disclosure.

(3)

A requester has a greater right of access than the general public to any personally identifiable information pertaining to the individual in a record containing personally identifiable information that is maintained by the Village.

Retention of records. The Village shall keep the following records for at least the quantified time periods set herein below and by statute unless the state Public Records Board has adopted a shorter period pursuant to § 16.61(3)(e), Wis. Stats., then it shall apply instead:

(1)

Do not destroy; retain for an indefinite period: minutes of meetings; original copies of ordinances and ordinance amendments; original copies of resolutions; deeds and other property records; information about plats, certified survey maps, public streets and highways; legal opinions received from the Village attorney; information on the Village's "Class B" liquor license quota; and insurance policies.

(2)

Unless otherwise enumerated in statute or herein below, a record shall be kept at least seven years pursuant to § 19.21(4)(b), Wis. Stats.

(3)

Pursuant to § 19.21(7), Wis. Stats., a tape recording of a meeting for the sole purpose of making the minutes can be destroyed no sooner than 90 days after the minutes are approved.

(4)

Pursuant to § 125.04(3)(i)3, Wis. Stats., liquor license applications shall be retained for at least four years.

(5)

All materials and supplies associated with an election may be destroyed pursuant to the schedules of § 7.23, Wis. Stats., which is incorporated into this chapter by reference and as from time to time amended as if fully set forth herein.

(6)

Pursuant to § 19.21(4)(a), Wis. Stats., no assessment roll containing land enrolled in the Forest Crop Program can be destroyed without prior approval of the state secretary of revenue.

Notice to historical society. Prior to the destruction of any public record, at least 60 days' notice in writing shall first be given to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (SHSW). However, once the Village has notified the SHSW regarding a particular record series, and if the SHSW waives further notification of that record series for the future, then the Village may in the future destroy further additions to such record series without notifying SHSW.