City council will decide on issue at Wednesday meeting

Requests for public records held by the city of Albany would be handled according to a policy that's up for city council adoption on Wednesday.

City Manager Wes Hare said the policy represents no departure from anything the city has done so far but merely puts it in writing.

"Our philosophy is we want to obey not just the letter but the spirit of the public records law," Hare said.

But, he added, the council also wants to protect the public from the expense of responding to malicious or spurious requests for records that would take hundreds of city workers weeks to fulfill.

As an example of a burdensome request - though not necessarily a spurious or malicious one - Hare said Friday he had just received a letter from lawyers in Washington, D.C., requesting of list of every construction bond posted in Albany for the last 10 years. But they want to know what the request would cost before work on it is started.

The new policy says the city doesn't have to make lists if the requested information is not already in list form. It also says requests must be specific, including dates and other details, to enable city staff to find them.

The council takes up the policy when it meets at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday at city hall.

The policy sets up a series of fees for inspecting public records or having copies made. It says the fees are intended to cover the city's actual cost of responding to requests.

For example, copies on standard paper are 25 cents each. Electronic copies will be furnished on CDs or DVDs at $5 each. Audio tapes are $15 for the first copy and $5 for each additional tape.

The policy also allows the city to charge research fees for any request that takes more than half an hour.

For 30 minutes to two hours, it's $25 an hour. For efforts to retrieve records taking more than two hours, the charge is the actual "overhead" of the employees involved.

"If a request is of such magnitude and nature that compliance would disrupt the city's normal operation, the city may impose such additional charges as are necessary to reimburse the city for its actual costs of producing the records," it says.

Applications to inspect records are to be filed with Betty Langwell, the city recorder. Requests for police records would be filed directly with the police department.

Oregon's public records law says any writing in the possession of local and state government is a public record. But it exempts some records from public inspection.

The proposed Albany policy says the city may refer requests to legal counsel for advice on whether a record is exempt. Hare said this is not the city's practice on routine requests, and the policy represents no change.