Staff

Writer

Every

appointed and elected body in Peachtree City is taking

time in the next week to address an issue of concern to

governments across the state - changes in the state

Open Records and Open Meetings laws.

Amendments

passed by the General Assembly this year take effect July

1. The Open Meetings law was amended by House Bill 278,

and the Open Records law was amended by House Bills 279

and 250, as well as Senate Bill 20.

Not

providing access to appropriate records will be a

misdemeanor under the new statutes, with a possible fine

of $100.

Proposed

changes in policy for the city were scheduled to be

addressed briefly at Thursday's City Council meeting.

These items will be covered in more detail Tuesday at 6

p.m. in the council chambers, with the members of every

board, commission or authority in the city having been

encouraged to attend.

The

following changes in the laws are taken from a letter

sent by the firm of Webb, Stuckey & Lindsey, which

serves as legal counsel for Peachtree City, to city

manager Jim Basinger, to be included as part of the

record of Thursday's council meeting.

Changes in

the Open Records law now include records received or

maintained by a private person, corporation or other

private agency when a service is being performed on

behalf of a public agency or public office. Those records

are now subject to the same disclosure as if they were

kept by the public office.

In addition

to responding within three business days as to whether

records a citizen has requested are subject to access,

that citizen must now be given access to inspect and copy

the records within that same period. This amendment does

not change the status of records not subject to

inspection under the law.

Another

change pertains to technology. Records kept by computer

must be made available by electronic means, including the

Internet, whenever possible, subject to reasonable

security restrictions preventing access to non-available

records.

When

providing an estimate of costs incurred in retrieving

documents, the law does not permit an agency to add any

fees for electronic access except what is directly

attributed to providing the records.

Release of

personnel records has been slightly amended to prevent

disclosure of an employee's Social Security number and

insurance or medical information.

When access

to records is denied, the specific source of authority

for such action must be provided to the citizen,

including code section, subsection and paragraph.

Requests

for motor vehicle accident reports are now released only

upon "the submission of a written statement of need

code. Those parties include witnesses, insurance

companies, law enforcement officials and members of the

news media, among others.

As for open

meetings, the definition of an "agency" has

been amended to include any public corporation. The

definition of "meeting" now includes any

discussion of any public matter along with official

business of the agency. "Any public matter" is

not specifically defined, according to city attorneys.

An agency

conducting a public meeting must now release the agenda

to the public in advance of the meeting, as soon as

reasonably possible. A summary of action taken is to be

written and made available to the public within two

business days of the meeting.

If any

meeting is closed to the public, the person presiding

over the meeting must file a notarized affidavit with the

minutes, stating under oath that the subject matter

covered is legally exempt from open meeting requirements.

City

attorneys made several recommendations for how the city

should address these changes.

It was

suggested that a policy for internal handling of open

records be established, and requests be handled as

quickly as possible. Only the city attorney should make

the final determination that certain records are exempt

from disclosure.

Separate

personnel files should be kept on all employees, it was

recommended, so that information now exempt is kept apart

from what must be disclosed.

Any form

filled out by citizens that will be a public record

should be noted as such by the city, attorneys

recommended.

Suggestions

for revising printed agendas were presented as a way to

help summaries be published more easily.

It was

recommended that the mayor, chairman, city manager and

assistant city manager be given the authority to amend

the agenda up to 24 hours before a meeting, and notice of

this policy be printed on each agenda. Agenda items

probably should be added at the last minute only when

necessary, according to legal counsel.

It was also

recommended that rules be developed concerning how public

officials meet with constituents, as well as how and when

city matters are discussed, so that the more strict laws

are not violated. Rules for committee and subcommittee

meetings also were suggested.

City

attorneys maintained that no meeting should be closed

without the advice of legal counsel, and any reason to

close a meeting should be entered into the minutes before

the meeting is closed, with every member of the affected

body signing the affidavit mandated earlier.

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