[Ord. No. 2002-13 § I; amended 10-14-2025 by Ord. No. 2025-24]
Inspection of public records shall be as prescribed by the Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq. ("OPRA"), as amended and as implemented by State regulation.
[Ord. No. 2002-13 § I; amended 10-14-2025 by Ord. No. 2025-24]
a.
Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5c, whenever the nature, format, manner of collation, or volume of a public record embodied in the form of printed matter to be inspected, examined, or copied pursuant to the above referenced statute is such that the record cannot be reproduced by ordinary document copying equipment in ordinary business size or involves an extraordinary expenditure of time and effort to accommodate the request, in addition to the actual cost of duplicating the record, the Township possesses the statutory right to impose a special service charge.
b.
Special Service Charge.
1.
Where the Township possesses the right to impose a special service charge under OPRA, the Township may impose a charge of $25 per hour for the time that a municipal employee is required to devote to responding to the OPRA request. However, in no event shall the charge exceed the direct cost of providing the special service by the lowest level employee capable of performing the task.
2.
An estimated total charge for the special service charge shall be given to the requester prior to the Township completing any review or production requiring a special service charge. The requestor shall have the opportunity to review and object to any fee or charge prior to it being incurred. There shall be a rebuttable presumption that the fees or charges presented by the custodian are reasonable. If the requestor objects to the fees or charges, the burden of proof shall be on the requestor to demonstrate that the fees or charges are unreasonable.
3.
In order for the review and production of the government record subject to a special service charge to proceed, the requester shall be required to post a 50% deposit based upon the estimated charge to be assessed.
4.
If during any effort, it appears that an estimate given to the requester will be exceeded by more than 25%, a revised estimate shall be given and opportunity to review and object provided before the special service effort is continued.
5.
Body Worn Cameras.
(a)
The following terms shall apply to special service charges for OPRA requests seeking body worn or vehicular camera footage or a similar medium that are determined to require redactions:
(1)
For every one hour of camera footage requested, it shall be presumed that three hours of time are required for review and redaction.
(2)
Requesters of camera footage shall be assessed a per-hour special service charge billed in half-hour increments.
(3)
Requests for camera footage under one hour in length shall be capped at one hour of time for review and redaction.
(4)
The Township's records custodian, in consultation with the Holmdel Township Police Department, may issue forms to be utilized in conformance with this section and N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5c.