Secretary of State

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Vermont State Archives

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Act 159 of 1996 requires the Secretary of State "to identify any issues relating to access, charges and administration that have arisen as a result of the provisions of this act."

To help accomplish this mandate, Secretary of State Jim Milne asks that municipal clerks please fill out the following form and send it to State Archivist Greg Sanford (gsanford@sec.state.vt.us) Mail address is 109 State Street, Montpelier, VT 05609-1101; Phone is 802-828-2369.

ACCESS--Please comment on such issues as whether the new actual-cost legislation has increased demand for copies (please quantify if possible); whether requestors seek non-standard forms of your electronic records and how you respond; whether requestors want electronic or paper copies of electronic records; or other issues related to access.

 

 

CHARGES--Please comment on what, if any, changes you would recommend to the actual-cost schedule established by the Secretary of State and why you make those recommendations. (For example, would you add or delete categories of media or types and amounts of chargeable staff time?)

 

 

ADMINISTRATION--Please comment on what, if any, changes the new actual-cost statute have caused in how you administer your office. (For example, do you not charge for a small copy request because the fee is smaller than the cost of processing the fee? if so, what amount of copies don't you charge for? How do you establish when the 30 minutes of unchargeable staff time is met; when does the clock start ticking?)

 

 

 

MANDATES AND DEFINITIONS:

• 1 V.S.A. §316(d): To determine "actual cost" the secretary shall consider the following only: the cost of the paper or the electronic media onto which a public record is copied, a prorated amount for maintenance and replacement of the machine or equipment used to copy the record and any utility charges directly associated with copying a record.

• 1 V.S.A.§316(C): In the following instances an agency may also charge and collect the cost of staff time associated with complying with a request for a copy of a public record: (1) the time directly involved in complying with the request exceeds 30 minutes; (2) the agency agrees to create a public record; or (3) the agency agrees to provide the public record in a non-standard format and the time directly involved in complying with the requests exceeds 30 minutes.

• 1 V.S.A. §316(h): Standard format for copies of public records shall be as follows: for copies in paper form, a photocopy of a paper public record or a hard copy print-out of a public record maintained in electronic form; for copies in electronic form, the format in which the record is maintained. Any format other than the formats described in this subsection is a nonstandard format.

• 1 V.S.A. §316(e): After public hearing, the legislative body of a political subdivision shall establish actual cost charges for public records. The legislative body shall also establish the amount that may be charged for staff time, when such charge is authorized under this section. To determine actual cost charges, the legislative body shall use the same factors used by the secretary of state. If a legislative body fails to establish a uniform schedule of charges, the charges for that political subdivision shall be the uniform schedule of charges established by the secretary of state until the local legislative body establishes such a schedule.

• 1 V.S.A. §317(A): "Public agency" or "agency" means any agency, board, department, commission, committee, branch, instrumentality, or authority of the state or any agency, board, committee, department, branch, instrumentality, commission or authority of any political subdivision of the state.

• 1 V.S.A. §316(i) If an agency maintains public records in an electronic format, non-exempt public records shall be available for copying in either the standard electronic format or the standard paper format, as designated by the party requesting the records. An agency may, but is not required to, provide copies of public records in a nonstandard format, to create a public record or to convert paper public records to electronic format.