New Jersey has adopted OPRA, 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.
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.
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:
A. Direct costs (no overhead) to comply with the request; plus
B. Special charges; the cost of technology and labor actually incurred.
An estimate of same shall be provided first to the requesting party
before the request is processed and the charges imposed.
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.