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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION COMPLIANCE
All requests for information under the Freedom of Information
Act should be directed to the appropriate office.
For a listing of offices please return to the main menu and
click on “Department
Directory”.
The purpose of the Freedom of Information
Act is to ensure that all persons are entitled to full and complete
information regarding the affairs of government and the official
acts and policies of those who represent them as public officials.
The Act provides that each public body
shall make available to any person for inspection, or upon
submission of a written request shall provide copies of any
requested records, those records that are subject to disclosure
under the Act. The Act
does exempt a number of records from disclosure.
The Act does not require the County to
create new records or to answer questions other than through the
production of the records. This
Act is not intended to be used to violate individual privacy, nor
for the purpose of furthering a commercial enterprise, or to disrupt
the duly-undertaken work of any public body independent of the
fulfillment of any of the rights of the people to access to
information.
HOW DO YOU REQUEST INFORMATION UNDER THE
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT?
All Freedom of Information Act Requests
must be in writing and should contain a detailed description of the
desired records. The
detailed description should include:
- The requester’s name, address, telephone number, and
e-mail address, if available
- A clear description of the records being sought.
The description must be specific enough that a government
employee familiar with the files will be able to locate the
records within a reasonable amount of time to provide you with a
complete response.
NOTE:
The Act does provide that a request for all public records
within a category should not be “unduly burdensome”.
Under subsection 3(f), a public body need not comply with a
request if compliance “would be unduly burdensome for the
complying public body and there is no way to narrow the request and
the burden of the public body outweighs the public interest in the
information”.
Your requests can be made either in person or
in writing by any of the following methods:
ARE THERE ANY FEES?
Freedom of Information requestors may
have to pay fees to cover some or all of the costs of processing
their request. Fees may
be limited to actual mailing costs, duplication or publication
costs. If a fee is due,
you will be contacted on the cost, which must be paid prior to
receiving the documents.
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