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Issued Date: 08/26/10 Revised: 07/27/11 |
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PUBLIC RECORDS
T.C.A. § 10-7-503 provides for personal inspection by any citizen of the state of Tennessee, “public records”, during business hours. “Public record” means all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, microfilms, sound recordings or other materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by the Board of Education; with exemptions of confidential information determined by law. “Public records” do not include the device or equipment, including, but not limited to, a cell phone, computer or other electronic or mechanical device or equipment, that may have been used to create or store a “public record”.
Requests regarding public records shall be made to the records custodian (Superintendent or Superintendent's designee) at the Shelby County Schools administrative building located at 160 South Hollywood Street, Memphis, Tennessee 38112.
SCHEDULE OF REASONABLE CHARGES FOR COPIES OF PUBLIC
RECORDS
T.C.A. § 10-7-506 permits record custodians to charge for copies or duplication of public records.
Copy and/or Duplication Charges must be paid in advance to the records custodian by cash or certified funds.
SCS assesses a charge of 15 cents per page for each standard 8 1/2 x 11 or 8 1/2 x 14 black and white copy produced.
If a public record is maintained in color, the records custodian shall advise the requestor that the record can be produced in color if the requestor is willing to pay a charge higher than that of a black and white copy. If the requestor then requests a color copy, SCS assesses a charge of 50 cents per page for each 8 1/2 x 11 or 8 1/2 x 14 color copy produced.
Additional Production Charges
Delivery of copies of records to a requestor is anticipated to be by hand delivery when the requestor returns to the custodian's office to retrieve the requested records. If the requestor chooses not to return to the records custodian's office to retrieve the copies, the records custodian may deliver the copies through means of the United States Postal Service and the cost incurred in delivering the copies may be assessed to the requestor in addition to any other permitted charge.
If SCS utilizes an outside vendor to produce copies of requested records because the custodian is legitimately unable to produce the copies in his/her office, the cost assessed by the vendor to SCS may be recovered from the requestor. If SCS is assessed a charge to retrieve requested records from archives or any other entity having possession of requested records, SCS may assess the requestor the cost assessed SCS for retrieval of records.
Labor Charges
“Labor” is defined as the time reasonably necessary to produce the requested records and includes the time spent locating, retrieving, reviewing, redacting, and reproducing the records.
“Labor threshold” is defined as the labor of the employee(s) reasonably necessary to produce requested material for the first hour incurred by the records custodian in producing the material.
SCS is permitted to charge the hourly wage of the employee(s) reasonably necessary to produce the requested records above the “labor threshold.” The hourly wage is based upon the base salary of the employee(s) and does not include benefits. If an employee is not paid on an hourly basis, the hourly wage shall be determined by dividing the employee's annual salary by the required hours to be worked per year.
In calculating the charge for labor, SCS shall determine the number of hours each employee spent producing a request. The records custodian shall then subtract the one (1) hour threshold from the number of hours the highest paid employee(s) spent producing the request. SCS will then multiply the total number of hours to be charged for the labor of each employee by that employee's hourly wage. Finally, SCS will add together the totals for all the employees involved in the request and that will be the total amount of labor that can be charges.