Open Records Act Policy
Policy Statement
As a state agency, Georgia College shall adhere to the Georgia Open Records Act (“Act”) as prescribed by the Georgia General Assembly. This policy designates the office that will manage open records requests for the University, and establishes the protocol and procedure for handling such requests.
Definitions
Agency
“Every state department, agency, board, bureau, office, commission, public corporation, and authority; Every county, municipal corporation, school district, or other political subdivision of this state; Every department, agency, board, bureau, office, commission, authority, or similar body of each such county, municipal corporation, or other political subdivision of the state; Every city, county, regional, or other authority established pursuant to the laws of this state; and Any nonprofit organization to which there is a direct allocation of tax funds made by the governing body of any agency as defined in this paragraph which constitutes more than 33 1/3 percent of the funds from all sources of such organization; provided, however, that this subparagraph shall not include hospitals, nursing homes, dispensers of pharmaceutical products, or any other type organization, person, or firm furnishing medical or health services to a citizen for which they receive reimbursement from the state whether directly or indirectly. This further includes any association, corporation, or other similar organization that has a membership or ownership body composed primarily of counties, municipal corporations, or school districts of this state, their officers, or any combination thereof and derives more than 33 1/3 percent of its general operating budget from payments from such political subdivisions.”
Designated Open Records Requests Office
“The office designated by the University to process all open records requests.”
FERPA
“The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.”
FOIA
“The Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) is a federal law that gives citizens the right to access information from the federal government.”
Georgia Open Records Act
“Legislation enacted by the Georgia General Assembly to foster citizens confidence in government and allow the public to evaluate the expenditure of public funds and the efficient and proper functioning of its institutions.”
HIPAA
“The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) Privacy Rule is a federal law that protects the privacy of health information held by health insurers and certain health care providers.”
Maintaining Office
“The University office that maintains and/or houses records which are subject to the open records request.”
Notice to Produce
“A notice served on the counsel of the opposing party, in lieu of serving a subpoena, when a party desires to compel production of evidence in the possession, custody, or control of the opposing party.”
Public Record
“All documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, computer based or generated information, data, data fields, or similar material prepared and maintained or received by an agency or by a private person or entity in the performance of a service or function for or on behalf of an agency or when such documents have been transferred to a private person or entity by an agency for storage or future governmental use.”
Receiving Office
“The University office that receives an open records request.”
Request for Production of Documents
“A request, served on any other party, to produce and permit the party making the request, or someone acting on his behalf, to inspect and copy any designated documents.”
Subpoena
“A written order of the court that compels a witness to give testimony on a particular subject or compels the production of documentary evidence.”
Keywords
FOIA
Information requests
Open records requests
Public records
Record requests
Reason for the Policy
The Georgia General Assembly enacted the Act to foster confidence through transparency in government by providing all citizens the right to view and/or copy the public records of state agencies. Georgia College, as an institution of the University System of Georgia, is an entity of the State of Georgia and is therefore required to follow all laws and regulations that are applicable to state agencies – such laws and regulations include the Georgia Open Records Act.
This policy is necessary to ensure the Georgia College community is complying with the Act, and supporting effective and efficient University operations. This policy also provides accountability for University personnel, and designates the Office of Legal Affairs (“Legal Affairs”) as the central, open records requests office for Georgia College, as allowed by the Act.
Georgia College professes a commitment “to promoting ‘Reason, Respect, and Responsibility’ by deepening students’ individual, group, and community values through greater understanding of self, promotion of reasoned and respectful discourse, and the development of engaged citizenship.” This policy not only provides necessary efficiency, it supports the University’s commitment to the important value of an engaged citizenry.
Proposed Outcome
The goal of this policy is to change how open records requests are handled by the University through the streamlining of the request and response process by way of a central, processing office for all open records requests. This process will ensure all requests are handled in a timely manner and comply with applicable federal and state laws and regulations.
Applicability of the Policy
This policy applies to all members of the Georgia College community, as well as the general public.
Related Policies
None
Procedures
I. As authorized by the Act, Legal Affairs is the designated open records requests office for Georgia College.
A. This designation requires that all open records requests are routed to Legal Affairs for processing.
B. As required by the Act, upon such designation the University shall:
1. Notify any individual or organization, upon request, of the designation of the Legal Affairs as the designated open records office;
2. Notify the local newspaper of such designation; and
3. Notify the general public by placing such designation on the University’s website.
II. An individual or organization not acting in an official capacity with the University shall submit a request to inspect or copy records to the Legal Affairs by utilizing the “Open Records Request Submission Link” located on the Legal Affairs’ website.
A. Please note: Requests may be submitted via verbally, in writing, e-mail, or facsimile transmission.
B. Requests to inspect or copy electronic messages, whether in the form of e-mail, text message, or other format, should contain information about the messages that is reasonably calculated to allow the recipient of the request to locate the messages sought, including, if known, the name, title, or office of the specific person or persons whose electronic messages are sought and, to the extent possible, the specific data bases to be searched for such messages.
C. Requests by civil litigants for records that are sought as part of or for use in any ongoing civil or administrative litigation against an agency shall be made in writing and copied to counsel of record for that agency contemporaneously with their submission to that agency.
D. If a University employee other than the Legal Affairs receives a request for records, that employee shall direct the citizen to contact the Office of Legal Affairs or gather all necessary information, complete the “Open Records Request Submission Link” located on the Legal Affairs’ website. If the office or person receives the request by mail (electronic or otherwise), the request shall be immediately forwarded to Legal Affairs on the same day the request is received. All documents, attachments, etc. accompanying the request shall be sent along with the request to Legal Affairs.
III. Legal Affairs has three (3) business days to respond to all requests.
A. In the event of a search and retrieval delay or if for some other extraordinary reason the request cannot be filled within the prescribed timeframe, Legal Affairs shall notify the requester within three (3) business days of submission of the request.
1. Such notification shall include confirmation of receipt of the request, date of receipt, and an approximation of time as to when the requested information will be forwarded to the requester.
B. In those instances where some, but not all, records are available within three (3) business days, Legal Affairs shall make available within that period those records that can be located and produced.
C. As Legal Affairs is the designated request office, the three (3) business day period does not begin to run until such time that Legal Affairs receives a request.
IV. When Legal Affairs receives a request, it shall immediately contact the maintaining office.
A. The maintaining office will estimate the time it may take to search, retrieve, redact, and re-file the records, and inform Legal Affairs of the estimated necessary to fulfill the request.
1. As authorized by the Act, based upon the estimated time expenditure Legal Affairs shall determine if the maintaining office will proceed with the request or defer the search and retrieval until funds are received from the requester. Costs will be calculated based on the information listed in section VII(A) of this policy.
a. Legal Affairs will inform the requester of the costs of the retrieval. If the requester decides to withdraw the request, Legal Affairs will notify the maintaining office to cease working on the request.
b. Upon recommendation of Legal Affairs the maintaining office may defer search and retrieval of the records until the requester agrees to pay the estimated costs unless the requester has stated in his or her request a willingness to pay an amount that exceeds the search and retrieval costs.
c. Until such time that the requester withdraws the request, the maintaining office must continue collecting and redacting the records in a timely fashion.
2. If the costs are in excess of $25.00 for responding to a request, Legal Affairs shall notify the requester within a reasonable amount of time not to exceed three (3) business days and inform the requester of the estimated costs. In any instance in which the estimated costs for production of the records exceeds $500.00, the University may insist on prepayment of the costs prior to beginning search, retrieval, review, or production of the records.
B. Upon completion of preparation of the requested documents the maintaining office shall prepare a brief statement of time expended preparing requested information policy and notify Legal Affairs.
V. Upon receipt of the requested material and maintaining office’s statement of time, Legal Affairs shall review the material to ensure compliance with the Act, and other applicable laws. All information will be redacted, as necessary.
A. As authorized by the Act, Georgia College may decide to withhold all or part of a requested record, in that case it shall notify the requester of the specific legal authority exempting the requested record or records from disclosure by Code section, subsection, and paragraph within a reasonable amount of time not to exceed three (3) business days or in the event the search and retrieval of records is delayed.
1. The Act exempts certain information from disclosure and therefore should not be released in response to an open records request. This information includes, but is not limited to:
a. Social security numbers;
b. Medical information;
c. Insurance information;
d. Month and day of birth;
e. Information required to be kept confidential by federal and state law; and
f. Other confidential information.
VI. Upon completion of the review of all material, Legal Affairs shall prepare an invoice of cost, as listed in section VII(A).
A. Costs authorized by the Act include:
1. The search, retrieval, or redaction of records that shall not exceed the prorated hourly salary of the lowest paid full-time employee who, in the reasonable discretion of the custodian of the records, has the necessary skill and training to perform the request.
a. There will be no charge shall be made for the first quarter hour.
2. Ten cents ($.10) per page for any copies in addition to the costs of search, retrieval, redaction and re-filing. This fee may be waived for requests that result in fewer than 20 copies.
3. Where fees for certified copies or other copies or records are specifically authorized or otherwise prescribed by law, such specific fee shall apply when certified copies or other records to which a specific fee may apply are sought.
4. If the available information is in electronic format, Georgia College may charge the public the actual cost of the media on which the records or data are produced.
VII. Reimbursement of costs.
A. Funds received from a requester of an open records request will be deposited with the Business Office.
1. If one (1) maintaining office is responsible for the search and retrieval of requested information, the funds received from the requester will be deposited in that office’s general account.
2. If two (2) or more maintain offices are involved in the search and retrieval of requested information, the funds received from a requester will be deposited in the offices’ general accounts proportionate to the amount of time expended by each office.
B. If an individual or organization fails to pay for the search, retrieval, redaction, or copying of requested records, Georgia College may require prepayment for all future requests until the costs for the prior request has be paid or the dispute regarding payment resolved.
Guidelines
Georgia College is not required to prepare reports, summaries, or compilations not in existence at the time of the request.
Subpoenas, Notices to Produce, and Requests for Production of Documents are not open records requests. However, if an office receives any of these documents, from any source, the receiving office shall immediately contact the Office of Legal Affairs.
FERPA and HIPAA requests are not open records requests. FERPA requests shall continue to be handled by the Registrar’s Office, HIPAA requests shall continue to be processed by Student Health Services, and requests for one’s own personnel records shall be processed by Human Resources, unless circumstances require any of these types of requests to be processed by another University office.
VIII. Non-Compliance
Failure to comply with the requirements of this policy may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination or expulsion in accordance with relevant University policies and may result in prosecution in accordance with state and federal law.
Creation Date: August 2019
Revision Date: N/A
Last Reviewed Date: N/A
Next Review Date: August 2021
Responsible Department: Office of Legal Affairs
Cabinet Approval Date: September 24, 2019
Effective Date: September 24, 2019