A. 
The records of the City shall be kept in the custody of the City Clerk.
1. 
As used in this Article, the word "record" or "records" shall mean any document, book, paper, photograph, map, sound recording or other material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received pursuant to law or in connection with the transaction of official business. Library and museum material made or acquired and preserved solely for reference or exhibition purposes, extra copies of documents preserved only for convenience of reference, and stocks of publications and of processed documents are not included within the definition of records as used in this Article, and are hereinafter designated as "non-record" materials.
2. 
The City Clerk may designate a subordinate or another City Official authority to have temporary custody of City records, after satisfying himself/herself as to the safety of said records.
A. 
All records made or received by or under the authority of or coming into the custody, control or possession of local officials in the course of their public duties are the property of the City and shall not be mutilated, destroyed, transferred, removed or otherwise damaged or disposed of, in whole or in part, except as provided by law.
1. 
No record shall be destroyed or otherwise disposed of unless it is determined that the record has no further administrative, legal, fiscal, research or historical value.
2. 
Non-record materials or materials not included within the definition of records may, if not otherwise prohibited by law, be destroyed at any time, with the approval of the Missouri Local Records Board.
3. 
Records of the City may be disposed of or destroyed without the approval of the Missouri Local Records Board, if the same is permitted by the State Municipal Records Manual. Records may be retained for a period of time longer than the minimum retention period required by the State Municipal Records Manual, at the discretion of the Board of Aldermen.
[Ord. No. A-340 §1, 11-15-2004]
A. 
Except to the extent disclosure is otherwise required by law, the City or any other public governmental body of the City is authorized to close meetings, records and votes, to the extent they relate to the following:
1. 
Legal actions, causes of action or litigation involving the City or any other public governmental body of the City and any confidential or privileged communications between the City and any other public governmental body of the City or its representatives and its attorneys. However, any minutes or vote relating to litigation involving the City or any other public governmental body of the City shall be made public upon final disposition of the matter voted upon; 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 the City or any other public governmental body of the City where public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal consideration therefor. However, any minutes or vote or public record approving a contract relating to the leasing, purchase or sale of real estate by the City and any other public governmental body of the City 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 the City and any other public governmental body of the City when personal information about the employee is discussed or recorded. However, any vote on a final decision, when taken by the City and any other public governmental body of the City, to hire, fire, promote or discipline an employee of the City and any other public governmental body of the City must be made available 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. 
The State militia or National Guard or any part thereof;
5. 
Nonjudicial mental or physical health proceedings involving identifiable persons, including medical, psychiatric, psychological, or alcoholism or drug dependency diagnosis or treatment;
6. 
Scholastic probation, expulsion, or graduation of identifiable individuals, including records of individual test or examination scores; however, personally identifiable student records maintained by public educational institutions shall be open for inspection by the parents, guardian or other custodian of students under the age of eighteen (18) years and by the parents, guardian or other custodian and the student if the student is over the age of eighteen (18) years;
7. 
Testing and examination materials, before the test or examination is given or, if it is to be given again, before so given again;
8. 
Welfare cases of identifiable individuals;
9. 
Preparation, including any discussions or work product, on behalf of the City and any other public governmental body of the City or its representatives for negotiations with employee groups;
10. 
Software codes for electronic data processing and documentation thereof;
11. 
Specifications for competitive bidding, until either the specifications are officially approved by the City or any other public governmental body of the City or the specifications are published for bid;
12. 
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;
13. 
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;
14. 
Records which are protected from disclosure by law;
15. 
Meetings and public records relating to scientific and technological innovations in which the owner has a proprietary interest.
16. 
Confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental body and its auditor, including all auditor work product.
17. 
Operational guidelines and policies developed, adopted or maintained by any public agency responsible for law enforcement, public safety 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 the 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.
18. 
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.
Records related to the procurement of or expenditures relating to security systems purchased with public funds shall be open.
When seeking to close information pursuant to this exception, the public governmental body shall affirmatively state in writing that disclosure would impair the public governmental body's ability to protect the security of 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.
Records that are voluntarily submitted by a non-public entity shall be reviewed within ninety (90) days of submission to determine if retention of the document is necessary in furtherance of a security interest. If retention is not necessary, the documents shall be returned to the non-public governmental body or destroyed.
19. 
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.
20. 
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.
A. 
Except as set forth in Subsection (B) of this Section, no meeting or vote may be closed without an affirmative public vote of the majority of a quorum of the City or any other public governmental body of the City. The vote of each member of the City or any other public governmental body of the City on the question of closing a public meeting or vote and the specific reason for closing that public meeting or vote by reference to a specific Section of this Article shall be announced publicly at an open meeting of the governmental body and entered into the minutes.
B. 
The City and any other public governmental body of the City proposing to hold a closed meeting or vote shall give notice of the time, date and place of such closed meeting or vote and the reason for holding it by reference to the specific exception allowed under the provisions of Section 125.010. Such notice shall comply with the procedures set forth in Section 610.020, RSMo., for notice of a public meeting.
C. 
Any meeting or vote closed pursuant to Section 125.010 shall be closed only to the extent necessary for the specific reason announced to justify the closed meeting or vote. The City and any other public governmental body of the City shall not discuss any business in a closed meeting, record or vote which does not directly relate to the specific reason announced to justify the closed meeting or vote.
D. 
Nothing in Sections of this Chapter shall be construed as to require the City and any other public governmental body of the City to hold a closed meeting, record or vote to discuss or act upon any matter.
E. 
Public records shall be presumed to be open unless otherwise exempt under the provisions of Section 125.010.
[Ord. No. A-341 §1, 11-15-2004]
A. 
The City Clerk is who is to be responsible for the maintenance of the City's records. The identity and location of the City's Custodian is to be made available upon request.
B. 
The City shall make available for inspection and copying by the public of the City's public records. No person shall remove original public records from the office of the City or its Custodian without written permission of the designated City Clerk.
C. 
Each request for access to a public record shall be acted upon as soon as possible, but in no event later than the end of the third (3rd) business day following the date the request is received by the Custodian of records of the City. If access to the public record is not granted immediately, the Custodian shall give a detailed explanation of the cause for further delay and the place and earliest time and date that the record will be available for inspection. This period for document production may exceed three (3) days for reasonable cause.
D. 
If a request for access is denied, the City Clerk 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.
E. 
Cost Of Research/Reproduction. Records not exempt from disclosure shall be provided to those requesting copies at a cost of ten cents ($0.10) per page or portion thereof.
1. 
In the event a request for copies shall require research over and above the time for reproduction, a charge equal to the average hourly rate for clerical staff and the actual cost of research time shall apply. The City Clerk shall require payment prior to duplicating copies.
2. 
Documents may be furnished without charge or at a reduced charge when the City Clerk or Board of Aldermen determines the waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest and not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.
3. 
Fees for providing access to public records maintained on computer facilities, recording, tapes or disks, videotapes or films, picture, 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 public governmental body 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 may 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 may include the actual costs of such programming.