[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Committee of the Township
of Franklin 8-12-2010 by Ord. No. 2010-07. Amendments noted
where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Fees — See Ch. 182.
New Jersey has adopted OPRA,[1] which has as its general purpose making government records,
subject to exceptions created by statute, regulation and executive
order, 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.
OPRA permits the municipality to require the payment of fees, special
service charges and/or special charges as a prerequisite to the production
of records requiring extraordinary time and effort, special equipment
or special formatting.
[1]
Editor's Note: See N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., the Open
Public Records Act.
Requests for public documents must be submitted on Franklin
Township's standard OPRA request form established by the Township
Clerk, which may be amended from time to time by the Clerk, and which
can be obtained at the Office of the Franklin Township Municipal Clerk,
having municipal offices located at 202 Sidney Road, Pittstown, New
Jersey.
Nothing in this chapter shall require the custodian of documents
or any other municipal official to examine, analyze, tabulate, or
interpret documents that are subject to production under OPRA.
A.
As set forth below, the statutory fee schedule shall apply to routine
requests under OPRA.
B.
In accordance with current law under Smith v. Hudson County Register,
411 N.J. Super. 538 (App Div. 2010), the copying fees charged by Franklin
Township for routine records requests under OPRA shall be no more
than reasonably approximated "actual costs." For purposes of approximation,
the fees of N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5b are hereby incorporated herein, as such
fee schedule presently exists or as such fees might appear in future
modifications or amendments of the statute. Those fees currently are
as follows, per the June 2010 guidance of the Government Records Council:
(1)
For letter-sized pages and smaller: $0.10 per page;
(2)
For legal-sized pages and larger: $0.15 per page;
(3)
Access to electronic records (e-mails) and nonprinted materials shall
be provided free of charge;
(4)
The actual costs to provide a record in another medium (i.e., computer
disk, CD-ROM, DVD, etc.) shall be charged;
(5)
If Franklin Township's actual costs exceed the foregoing charges,
Franklin Township reserves the right to charge its actual costs of
duplication, upon advance advice to the requesting party, unless such
additional charge is disallowed by law; and
(6)
If the State of New Jersey should amend OPRA regarding copying fees,
then the Township Clerk shall adopt such fee schedule as conforms
with law.
A.
Charges authorized. Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5c, if the nature, format, manner of collation or volume of a record(s) is such that it cannot be reproduced by ordinary copying equipment then existing at Franklin Township, in ordinary business size, or involves an extraordinary expenditure of time and effort to accommodate the request, Franklin Township may charge, in addition to the actual duplication cost, a special service charge that is reasonable and based on actual direct costs of providing the copy or copies. In such cases, the Township Clerk, or other custodian or keeper of document qualifying for mandatory production as "governmental records" under OPRA, shall be entitled to special service charges and/or special charges as set forth in § 78-6 below.
B.
Advance notice of fees, special service charges and special charges; deposit. Any requester of government records which are eligible for the imposition of a special charge or special service charge under § 78-6 of this chapter shall receive advance notice of the amount of fees and charges before any work is started. The Township Clerk shall require prepayment of such charges before causing the work to begin.
A.
Duplication on other work beyond capability of municipal in-house
workforce. Whenever the in-house municipal workforce or available
municipal equipment is insufficient to duplicate or produce 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 vendors exceeds the routine charges set
forth in N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5b, the actual direct cost of same without
any additional surcharge for labor costs shall be paid by the requesting
party.
B.
Special service charges authorized. Whenever government records cannot
be reproduced by regular copying equipment or fulfillment of the request
would involve extraordinary time and effort (for example, where a
large number of records must be recovered from storage or substantive
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
(2)
A special service charge of the actual direct cost of labor shall
be imposed for each hour of extraordinary time predicted to be utilized
to respond to the request. An estimate of same shall be provided first
to the requesting party before the request is processed and the charges
imposed.
If a request for government records involves production or conversion
of digital or computerized records or film which is 1) in a medium
not routinely used by Franklin Township (i.e., electronic or film);
2) not routinely developed or maintained by Franklin Township; or
3) requiring a substantial amount of manipulation or programming of
information technology, the requester shall pay fees and special charges
as follows:
The Mayor, Clerk or Township Committee (by resolution) may waive
the fees or other charges otherwise chargeable if the requester of
governmental records is a governmental or educational entity.
