Agenda Packets - 2023/08/07 (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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I / 1 City of Mounds View Staff R To: Honorable Mayor, and City Council From: Nyle Zikmund, City Administrator Item Title/Subject: Public Data Requests Item No: Meeting Date: Type of Business Admin Review 4 August 7, 2023 WS Introduction: Council spent a brief amount of time discussing the impact of large data requests and directed staff to provide more information. The specific issue is large data requests — those that generate more than 100 pages and the subsequent fiscal impact of those. State law provides public entities the ability to impose reasonable fees associated with the request. A recent request, that is less than 50% complete, has resulted in no less than 30 hours of staff time at an estimated cost of more than $3,000 (wages/benefits of staff personnel). To complete the request, the staff time will likely more than double that. In addition, and in this case specific, legal review will have to occur to ensure non-public data is not disclosed. That cost will be more than $1,000. That cannot be charged back to the requestor, however; if they reduce the scope of the request that may result in a reduction of legal review. Common Questions Asked? 1. If a person wants to come in and view —there is not cost as that is the inspection; correct? "the responsible authority may not assess a charge or require the requesting person to pay a fee to inspect data." Minn. Stat. 13.03, subd. 3 (a). 2. If over 100 pages, can we charge for the actual costs of searching — thus, using the hourly rate (including benefits) as the fee? If the number of pages the requestor wants the city to make copies of is more than 100 pages, then: 1) if the requestor is the subject of the data no search fees can be charged (e.g., I make a request for any email from "Myself"); or 2) if the requestor is not the subject of the data (e.g., I make a request for any email from "Jesse Ventura"), then the city can charge for actual costs. Employee time must be calculated based on the wages/salary (may include benefits) of the lowest -paid entity employee who could complete the task (Advisory Opinion 04-056). Employee time does not include separating public from not public data. 3. Can council choose to impose after 300 pages, for example, instead of just 100? Yes, however the City should adopt a policy stating that this is the case. The Mounds View Vision A Thriving Desirable Community