Comment

The procedure for inspecting and/or copying documents requested under the Georgia Open Records Act by persons outside the Department of Transportation has been updated to comply with Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A.) §50-18-70. The policy has also been modified to account for the increase in administrative costs to be charged to a requesting party.

General Procedures

• All Open Records Requests received in the General Office shall be immediately hand delivered to the Office of Legal Services. Open Records Requests received in the Districts shall be immediately hand delivered to the District Legal Services Coordinator ("DLSC").

• The Office of Legal Services will be responsible for transmitting a copy of an Open Record Request to the DLSC or the appropriate coordinating party within the General Office. The Office of Legal Services or DLSC will be responsible for logging each Open Record Request into a database and will make the initial response to the requesting party, with copies to the DLSC or G.O. Coordinator, as applicable.

• Upon receipt of the Open Record Request, the DLSC or G.O. Coordinator shall start compiling the information related to the request and shall make the records available for inspection within three business days of the initial receipt of the request.

• If necessary, the DLSC or G.O Coordinator shall consult with the State Law Department or the Office of Legal Services to determine whether an exception to disclosure applies.

• If the DLSC or G.O. Coordinator determines that the request needs to be referred to another office (i.e.: railroad request), he or she shall fax a copy of the request to the appropriate office.

• The DLSC or G.O. Coordinator shall contact the requesting party by telephone or in writing to inform the party of what documents are available for inspection as well as the location of said documents. The initial written response shall be sent by facsimile, if at all possible, and United States Postal Service.

• Upon complying with the request, the DLSC or G.O. Coordinator shall log into the Open Records Request Database the date of compliance with the request.

• If it is determined that it is not possible to provide the requested documents within the requisite period of time (i.e.: data stored in archives), a detailed description of the available documents and a timetable for their inspection will be provided to the requesting party within the three business day period of time.

• If the records are maintained in computerized form, then the requesting party may request that they be produced by electronic means, including the Internet. This section does not require the Department to make records that are not already maintained by computer available by electronic means.

Records Custodian

The record custodian shall be the person or persons in direct control of the records. Upon request by the DLSC or G.O. coordinator, the record custodian shall immediately make the documents available.

Exceptions

The DLSC and Office of Legal Services shall consult with the State Law Department for the latest updates to exemptions from disclosure pursuant to 23 U.S.C. Section 409 and O.C.G.A. §50-18-72 to determine whether any of the other exceptions to disclosure listed under federal or state law are applicable.

Calculating and Accounting Procedures

Charges for providing copies of documents to parties outside the Department are calculated by the department administrative personnel using the Record Inspection & Copy Request Form, DOT 6231 as outlined below:
1. A fee of $0.25 per page will be charged. This may be waived for single requests of ten (10) copies or less.

2. If the retrieval of the records involves searching in remote storage areas and spending time trying to locate proper information to retrieve the records, the hourly fee will be charged. If a party wishes to review the records in an area in which they are normally maintained, there will also be an hourly charge.

3. The hourly charge for situations as described above is set by DOT at $11.60 per hour. There will be no charge for the first fifteen minutes.

4. If certification is requested, the certification must be handled through the Treasurer's Office. The fee is $2.00 per certification in addition to all other copying costs.

5. If computerized records that are maintained electronically are requested, the Department shall only charge for the actual cost of the computer disk or tape onto which the information is loaded and for the administrative time necessary to retrieve the information and provide the downloading.

6. Although the Georgia Open Records Act doesn't cover the following copy situations, the Department has been asked to provide to persons outside the Department copies of these other forms of media at the cost indicated below:
   • Diskettes: $12.00
   • CDs: $12.00
   • Cassette tapes: $10.00
   • Video tapes: $12.00
   • Plan sheets: $1.50 per sheet
   • Slides and photographs: Actual cost

7. Regardless of the type of media material being requested and the administrative time involved in having the material copied, Department personnel will need to complete the appropriate portion of the DOT 6231, Record Inspection & Copy Request Form to inform the requester of the charges for the services provided.

8. Upon completion of the process, the Legal Coordinator must obtain payment from the requester and prepare one of the Department's payment receipt forms before releasing the copied material. When payment has been received, the requester shall be given a copy of the completed DOT 6231, Record Inspection & Copy Request Form and a copy of the receipt for their records.

9. The DOT 6231, attached receipts and the equivalent funds are to be sent or taken to the central cashier on a daily basis. A copy of each Record Inspection & Copy Request Form along with a deposit receipt and/or central cashier's receipt shall be kept in each District's or Office's file as a record of media copy requests having been processed for information and audit purposes.

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Document History:
• added to Manual of Guidance: 02/26/93
• added to TOPPS: 02/02/96
• form revised: 09/28/98
• MS Word version of form added: 11/23/98
• policy revised: 07/26/99
• revised: 11/04/05

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