1-11-8. Procedures for records request.

(1) Under circumstances in which an agency is not able to immediately respond to a records request, the requester shall fill out and present to the agency a written request on forms provided by the County. The date and time of the request shall be noted on the written request form and all times provided under this ordinance shall commence from that time and date. Requesters of non-public information shall adequately identify themselves and, if applicable, their status when requesting access to non-public records.

(2) An agency may respond to a request for a record by approving the request and providing the records, denying the request, or such other appropriate response as may be established by policies and procedures. If a written request is denied in whole or in part, the agency shall provide a notice of denial to the requester. The denial notice shall include the reasons for denial and information regarding the appeals process and such other information as may be required by this ordinance and the Act.

(3) (a) An agency shall respond to a written request for a record as soon as reasonably possible, but no later than ten business days after receiving the request or five business days after receiving a request if the requester satisfactorily demonstrates that an expedited response time primarily benefits the public at large, rather than the requester individually. A requester seeking records for publication or broadcast purposes is presumed to be acting primarily for the benefit of the public at large.

(b) The following extraordinary circumstances shall justify an agency's failure to timely respond to a written request for a record and shall extend the time for response thereto to that time reasonably necessary to respond to the request, as determined by the agency director. Extraordinary circumstances shall include:

(i) the agency, another agency, or some other governmental entity is currently and actively using the record requested;

(ii) the record requested is for either a voluminous quantity of records or requires the agency to review a large number of records or perform extensive research to locate the materials requested;

(iii) the agency is currently processing either a large number of records requests or is subject to extraordinary seasonal work loads in the processing of other work;

(iv) the release of a record involves legal issues that require an agency to seek legal counsel for analysis of applicable laws;

(v) the request involves extensive editing to separate public data in a record from that which is not public; or

(vi) providing the information request requires computer programming or other format manipulation.

(c) When a timely response cannot be made to a record request, the agency shall notify the requester that it cannot immediately approve or deny the request because of one of the extraordinary circumstances listed above, and provide an explanation of the circumstances and an estimate of the time required to respond to the request. If the agency fails to provide the requested record within the estimated time, that failure shall be considered a denial of the request.

(4) The failure or inability of an agency to respond to a request for a record within the time frames set out herein, or the agency's denial of such a request, shall give the requester the right to appeal as provided in Section 10.

(5) Any County record which is subject to litigation, criminal investigation or audit or has been requested in accordance with this ordinance and the Act, that is disposable by an approved retention schedule, may not be disposed of until the litigation or audit has been resolved or the request is granted and fulfilled, or 60 days after the request is denied if no appeals are filed, or sixty days after all appeals are completed, pursuant to Section 10.

(6) In response to a request for access, an agency may redesignate or reclassify the record or segregate data in the requested record in accordance with this ordinance and the Act. (Ord. 95-19, 9/12/95; Ord. 92-5, 9/1/92)