[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Council of the Township
of Berlin 10-25-2010 by Ord. No. 2010-10. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Fees — See Ch. 156.
New Jersey has adopted the Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A.
47:1A-1 et seq., 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 Open 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.
A.
The statutory fees as set forth in Chapter 156, Fees, shall apply to routine requests for public records made to the Township of Berlin.
[Amended 4-29-2019 by Ord. No. 2019-3]
B.
Where the Township can demonstrate that its actual costs for duplication of a government record exceed the fee set forth in Subsection A above, the Township shall be permitted to charge the actual cost of duplicating the record.
C.
The actual cost of duplicating the record, upon which all copy fees are based, shall be the cost of materials and supplies used to make a copy of the record, but shall not include the cost of labor or other overhead expenses associated with making the copy, except as provided for in § 253-4 of this chapter.
D.
Access to electronic records and nonprinted materials shall be provided
free of charge, but the Township may charge for actual costs of any
needed supplies, such as computer discs.
A.
Requests to be in writing. Any requests for documents must be in
writing and shall be made to the Township Clerk on a form established
by the Township Clerk for such purposes.
B.
Method of transmission. Requests for governmental records under this
chapter shall be transmitted only by methods specified on the form
established by the Township Clerk. Requests transmitted by way of
facsimile are prohibited and shall not be accepted.
Nothing in this chapter 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.
A.
Charges authorized. The Township Clerk or other custodian or keeper of documents qualifying for mandatory production as governmental records under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act shall be entitled to special service charges and/or special charges as set forth in § 253-6 of this chapter.
B.
Advance notice of fees; special service charges and special charges;
deposit.
(1)
Any requestor of government records under this section shall receive
advance notice of the amount of fees and charges before any work is
started if it is anticipated by the Township Clerk that the charges
shall exceed $5. The Township Clerk may require prepayment of such
charges before causing the work to begin.
(2)
Any requestor of government records to be produced for inspection or photocopying, which are eligible for the imposition of a special charge or special service charge under § 253-6 of this chapter, shall receive advance notice of the estimated amount of fees and charges before any work is started. The Township Clerk shall require prepayment of such estimated amount as a deposit before causing the work to begin on production or photocopying.
A.
Duplication or other work beyond capability of municipal inhouse work force. Whenever the inhouse municipal work force or available municipal equipment is insufficient to duplicate or produce for inspection government records in a timely fashion, the Township Clerk may cause such duplication or production to be accomplished by outside vendors such as copy centers or producers of digital images. If the costs of such duplication or production charged by such vendor exceeds the routine charges set forth in § 253-2, the actual direct cost of same without any additional surcharge for labor costs shall be paid.
B.
Special service charged authorized. Whenever government records cannot
be reproduced by regular copying equipment or fulfillment of the request
for photocopying or production for inspection would involve extraordinary
expenditure of time and effort to accommodate the request (for example,
where a large number of records must be recovered from storage or
substantial staff time is required to review, sort and assemble records),
charges may be imposed as follows:
(1)
The actual cost (materials and supplies but no staff labor) of duplication
or reproduction; plus
C.
Rates for inhouse production of prints or blueprints. Any prints
or blueprints produced inhouse in response to a governmental records
request shall be produced for actual cost of labor and materials for
reproduction of such prints or blueprints.
D.
Digital records. If a request for governmental records involves production
or conversion of digital or computerized records or film which is
in a medium not routinely used by the agency (i.e., electronic or
film), not routinely developed or maintained by an agency or requiring
a substantial amount of manipulation or programming of information
technology, then the requester shall pay fees and special charges
as follows:
