[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Council of the Township of Logan 11-12-2025 by Ord. No. 18-2025. Amendments noted where applicable.]
New Jersey has adopted the Open Public Records Act ("OPRA"), N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq., which has as its general purpose making government records, subject to certain exceptions created by statute, regulation and executive order, available to the public. 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 and/or special charges as a prerequisite to the production of records requiring extraordinary time and effort, special equipment and/or special formatting.
Requests for public documents must be submitted in a manner and on forms required by OPRA to the Township Clerk at the municipal office located at 125 Main Street, Bridgeport, New Jersey.
A. 
As set forth below, the statutory fee schedule shall apply to routine requests under OPRA.
(1) 
For letter-sized pages and smaller: $0.05 per page;
(2) 
For legal-sized pages and larger: $0.07 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 Logan Township's actual costs exceed the foregoing charges, Logan Township shall charge its actual costs of duplication, upon advance notice to the requesting party; 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-5(c), if the nature, format, manner of collation or volume of a record(s) is such that it cannot be reproduced by ordinary copying equipment which exists at Logan Township, or involves an extraordinary expenditure of time and effort to accommodate the request, Logan Township shall 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 "governmental records" under OPRA, shall impose a special service charge and/or special charges as set forth in §§ 51-6 and 51-7 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 and/or special service charge under §§ 51-6 and 51-7 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 the estimated 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 the requested 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-5(b), the actual direct cost of same without any additional surcharge for labor costs shall be paid by the requesting party prior to commencing the duplication.
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 and redaction of personal information and/or identifiers) charges shall 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. Upon payment of the estimated charges, the Clerk shall commence reproduction of the requested government records.
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 Logan Township (i.e., electronic or film); 2) not routinely developed or maintained by Logan Township; or 3) requiring a substantial amount of manipulation or programming of information technology (example: redaction of exempt information), 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; and
C. 
A special service charge at the rate of $25 per hour shall be imposed for the cost of labor to review or redact any government document or record (including digital records) involving the review and redaction of personal information; personal identifiers and/or any other information or records, which shall be exempt pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq.