[Ord. No. 1389 §1, 10-11-1999; Ord. No. 1690 §1, 8-18-2004]
The City Clerk is appointed custodian of the records of the
City of Plattsburg, Missouri. The custodian is located at Plattsburg
City Hall.
[Ord. No. 1902 §1, 1-9-2008]
A. The following
records of the District shall be deemed to be closed records pursuant
to Section 610.021, RSMo.:
1. Legal
actions, causes of action or litigation involving a public governmental
body and any confidential or privileged communications between a public
governmental body or its representatives and its attorneys. However,
any minutes, vote or settlement agreement relating to legal actions,
causes of action or litigation involving a public governmental body
or any agent or entity representing its interests or acting on its
behalf or with its authority, including any insurance company acting
on behalf of a public government body as its insured, shall be made
public upon final disposition of the matter voted upon or upon the
signing by the parties of the settlement agreement, unless, prior
to final disposition, the settlement agreement is ordered closed by
a court after a written finding that the adverse impact to a plaintiff
or plaintiffs to the action clearly outweighs the public policy considerations
of Section 610.010, RSMo., however, the amount of any monies paid
by, or on behalf of, the public governmental body shall be disclosed;
provided however, in matters involving the exercise of the power of
eminent domain, the vote shall be announced or become public immediately
following the action on the motion to authorize institution of such
a legal action. Legal work product shall be considered a closed record;
2. Leasing,
purchase or sale of real estate by a public governmental body where
public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal
consideration therefor. However, any minutes, vote or public record
approving a contract relating to the leasing, purchase or sale of
real estate by a public governmental body shall be made public upon
execution of the lease, purchase or sale of the real estate;
3. Hiring,
firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees by a public
governmental body when personal information about the employee is
discussed or recorded. However, any vote on a final decision, when
taken by a public governmental body, to hire, fire, promote or discipline
an employee of a public governmental body shall be made available
with a record of how each member voted to the public within seventy-two
(72) hours of the close of the meeting where such action occurs; provided
however, that any employee so affected shall be entitled to prompt
notice of such decision during the seventy-two (72) hour period before
such decision is made available to the public. As used in this Subdivision,
the term "personal information" means information
relating to the performance or merit of individual employees;
4. Preparation,
including any discussions or work product, on behalf of a public governmental
body or its representatives for negotiations with employee groups;
5. Software
codes for electronic data processing and documentation thereof;
6. Specifications
for competitive bidding, until either the specifications are officially
approved by the public governmental body or the specifications are
published for bid;
7. Sealed
bids and related documents, until the bids are opened; and sealed
proposals and related documents or any documents related to a negotiated
contract until a contract is executed or all proposals are rejected;
8. Individually
identifiable personnel records, performance ratings or records pertaining
to employees or applicants for employment, except that this exemption
shall not apply to the names, positions, salaries and lengths of service
of officers and employees of public agencies once they are employed
as such and the names of private sources donating or contributing
money to the salary of a chancellor or president at all public colleges
and universities in the state of Missouri and the amount of money
contributed by the source;
9. Records
which are protected from disclosure by law;
10. Confidential
or privileged communications between a public governmental body and
its auditor, including all auditor work product; however, all final
audit reports issued by the auditor are to be considered open records
pursuant to this Chapter;
11. Operational
guidelines and policies developed, adopted or maintained by any public
agency responsible for law enforcement, public safety, first response
or public health for use in responding to or preventing any critical
incident which is or appears to be terrorist in nature and which has
the potential to endanger individual or public safety or health. Nothing
in this exception shall be deemed to close information regarding expenditures,
purchases or contracts made by an agency in implementing these guidelines
or policies. When seeking to close information pursuant to this exception,
the agency shall affirmatively state in writing that disclosure would
impair its ability to protect the safety or health of persons and
shall in the same writing state that the public interest in non-disclosure
outweighs the public interest in disclosure of the records. This exception
shall sunset on December 31, 2008;
12. Existing
or proposed security systems and structural plans of real property
owned or leased by a public governmental body and information that
is voluntarily submitted by a non-public entity owning or operating
an infrastructure to any public governmental body for use by that
body to devise plans for protection of that infrastructure, the public
disclosure of which would threaten public safety:
a. Records
related to the procurement of or expenditures relating to security
systems purchased with public funds shall be open;
b. When
seeking to close information pursuant to this exception, the disclosure
would impair the public governmental body's ability to protect the
security or safety of persons or real property and shall in the same
writing state that the public interest in non-disclosure outweighs
the public interest in disclosure of the records;
c. Records
that are voluntarily submitted by a non-public entity shall be reviewed
by the receiving agency within ninety (90) days of submission to determine
if retention of the document is necessary in furtherance of a State
security interest. If retention is not necessary, the documents shall
be returned to the non-public governmental body or destroyed;
d. This
exception shall sunset on December 31, 2008;
13. Records
that identify the configuration of components or the operation of
a computer, computer system, computer network or telecommunications
network and would allow unauthorized access to or unlawful disruption
of a computer, computer system, computer network or telecommunications
network of a public governmental body. This exception shall not be
used to limit or deny access to otherwise public records in a file,
document, data file or database containing public records. Records
related to the procurement of or expenditures relating to such computer,
computer system, computer network or telecommunications network, including
the amount of monies paid by or on behalf of a public governmental
body for such computer, computer system, computer network or telecommunications
network, shall be open; and
14. Credit
card numbers, personal identification numbers, digital certificates,
physical and virtual keys, access codes or authorization codes that
are used to protect the security of electronic transactions between
a public governmental body and a person or entity doing business with
a public governmental body. Nothing in this Section shall be deemed
to close the record of a person or entity using a credit card held
in the name of a public governmental body or any record of a transaction
made by a person using a credit card or other method of payment for
which reimbursement is made by a public governmental body.
[Ord. No. 1389 §2, 10-11-1999]
Public records of the City will generally be stored and maintained
at City Hall. The City Administrator is authorized to arrange for
off-site storage of City records as the needs of the City and the
volume of records may require. No person, including any employee of
the City, shall remove original public records from City Hall without
first obtaining the written permission of the Records Custodian. During
any public inspection of an original record, the Records Custodian
or a designated employee of the City shall be continuously present
to assure that such document is not altered, damaged, destroyed or
removed.
[Ord. No. 1389 §3, 10-11-1999; Ord. No. 1690 §2, 8-18-2004]
The custodian of records shall respond to requests for access
to or copies of public records within the time period provided by
Statute except in those circumstances authorized by Statute.
[Ord. No. 1389 §4, 10-11-1999]
It is the duty of the Records Custodian to review every request
for public records of the City to determine whether the documents
requested should be exempt from disclosure. Documents of the City
shall not be publicly disclosed if they contain attorney/client privileged
communications, attorney work product, confidential information concerning
City personnel (including an employee's social security number, medical
records, and/or disciplinary records), information subject to the
Deliberative Process Privilege, or information exempt from disclosure
pursuant to other laws. If the Records Custodian determines that a
request may be subject to denial, the Records Custodian shall immediately
confer with the City Attorney to determine whether all or any portion
of the request should be denied. If a request for access is denied,
the Records Custodian (or the City Attorney at the direction of the
Records Custodian) shall provide, upon request, a written statement
of the grounds for such denial. Such statement shall cite the specific
provision of law under which access is denied and shall be furnished
to the requester no later than the end of the third (3rd) business
day following the date that the request for the statement is received.
[Ord. No. 1389 §5, 10-11-1999]
If a City record contains material which is not exempt from
disclosure as well as material which is exempt from disclosure, the
Records Custodian shall separate the exempt and non-exempt material
and make the non-exempt material available for examination and copying.
If portions of a document are withheld from disclosure, the Records
Custodian shall provide a general written description of the redacted
material, unless that description would reveal the contents of the
exempt information and thus defeat the purpose of the exemption.
[Ord. No. 1389 §6, 10-11-1999; Ord. No. 1690 §3, 8-18-2004]
A. Fees
to be charged for access to or furnishing copies of records shall
be as hereinafter provided:
1. The
actual duplicating time required to duplicate the records shall be
charged to the requestor at a rate not to exceed the average hourly
rate of pay for clerical staff of the City. Research time required
for fulfilling records requests may be charged at the actual cost
of research time.
2. Copies
of records shall be ten cents ($0.10) per page for a paper copy not
larger than nine (9) by fourteen (14) inches.
3. Fees
for providing access to public records maintained on computer facilities,
recording tapes or disks, videotapes or films, pictures, maps, slides,
graphics, illustrations or similar audio or visual items or devices
and for paper copies larger than nine (9) by fourteen (14) inches
shall include only the cost of copies, staff time, which shall not
exceed the average hourly rate of pay for staff of the City required
for making copies and programming, if necessary, and the cost of the
disk, tape or other medium used for the duplication. Fees for maps,
blueprints or plats that require special expertise to duplicate shall
include the actual rate of compensation for the trained personnel
required to duplicate such maps, blueprints or plats. If programming
is required beyond the customary and usual level to comply with a
request for records or information, the fees for compliance shall
include the actual cost of such programming.
4. Prior
to producing copies of the requested records, the person requesting
the records may request the City to provide an estimate of the cost
to the person requesting the records. The City may require advance
payment for requests involving research and high volume copying.
[Ord. No. 1389 §7, 10-11-1999]
In matters of litigation involving the City where legal discovery
is involved through the use of subpoenas, interrogatories, requests
for production, or other similar requests, the provisions of this
Policy shall be inapplicable and the City Attorney shall supervise
the discovery process.
[Ord. No. 1389 §8, 10-11-1999]
Consistent with the intent and purpose of this policy, the Records
Custodian is authorized to promulgate such other rules or procedures
as may become necessary or appropriate to facilitate the orderly and
efficient production of documents and records to the public and to
preserve the availability and accuracy of original public records.
All such rules or procedures shall be reduced to writing, approved
by the City Administrator, and a copy of same shall be made available
to any person upon request.