No. SB 770
Filed under Local Government.
Public Records; Providing that it is a violation of specified provisions to fail to acknowledge a public records request promptly and in good faith; requiring custodians of public records to perform specified actions within a specified timeframe; prohibiting agencies from charging for specified public records requests; providing that violations of any law providing access to public records are violations of specified provisions; requiring that certain provisions authorizing a public records exemption be repealed after a specified timeframe unless the Legislature reenacts the exemption, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDA custodian or designee has three business days to either hand over the requested records, send a good-faith time-and-cost estimate, or deny the request and name the exemption. Missing all three forfeits the agency's right to charge for that record.
Public-records exemptions that survive their first five-year sunset now face a second one: ten years after reenactment, the exemption expires again unless the Legislature votes to renew it, keeping old carve-outs from becoming permanent by default.
Agencies must add an electronic payment option for records fees, cannot charge for a request that takes under 30 minutes, and cannot bill for redacting exempt material out of a record before releasing it.
Courts must award attorney fees whenever a records lawsuit finds a violation, with no advance-notice hurdle beforehand, and must add a doubled fee penalty plus $200 a day when an agency shows intentional disregard or a pattern of abuse.
AIA custodian or designee has three business days after a request to hand over the records, send a time-and-cost estimate, or deny the request and cite the exemption. Missing all three forfeits the agency's right to charge for that record.
AIOn top of new misdemeanor and infraction liability, a court must fine an agency twice the attorney-fee award plus $200 for every day it unlawfully denied access, whenever it finds intentional disregard of the constitutional right of access or a pattern of abuse.
AICourts must award reasonable attorney fees and enforcement costs against an agency whenever a records lawsuit shows it violated the law, dropping the old rule that required a requester to send written notice five business days before suing.
AIWhether the records are paper or electronic, an agency may not charge the requester anything, including the cost of duplication, if the request takes less than 30 minutes for staff to prepare.
AIFor a request serving a public purpose, such as journalism, nonprofit activity, or academic or other research, the agency may not charge the requester anything for the first 10 hours of staff time it estimates the request will take.
AIAn exemption that already survived its first five-year sunset does not become permanent: 10 years after being reenacted, it must be repealed again on October 2 of that year unless the Legislature votes to reenact it once more.
AIEvery agency must add an electronic way to pay any fee tied to a public-records request, on top of whatever payment methods it already accepts.
AIAn agency cannot grant a fee reduction or waiver to one requester and deny it to another requester who is similarly situated; the same public-purpose waiver rules must be applied evenhandedly.