On Thursday, the Alabama State Senate passed legislation for governments to respond to requests for records.
Senate Bill 196 (SB 196) is sponsored by State Senator Arthur Orr, R-Decatur.
SB196 changes the Alabama open records law. SB196 establishes procedures for requesting and obtaining public records. Every citizen has a right to inspect public records. The citizen requesting the record is required to provide a written request and may have to pay a fee in order to receive a certified copy. These “public records” do not include a record of the judicial branch of state government.
“A citizen may request access to a public record by delivering the request by hand or by mailing the request to the public officer having custody of the public record. A request for access to a public record may be made electronically if the public officer having custody of the public writing has established a written process for accepting electronic requests. A request for access made pursuant to this article shall identify the requested public record with reasonable specificity.”
“For purposes of this article, receipt of an electronically received request occurs when the public officer acknowledges receipt of the request in writing to the requester. The public officer shall promptly, but in all cases not more than 10 business days after the date of receipt, acknowledge receipt of the request.”
Once the public official has acknowledged the formal request and provided a receipt, the “public officer shall promptly, but in all cases not more than 20 business days after the date of receipt of the request, make one or more of the following responses to the requester in writing: (1) Respond that access to the requested public records will be provided at a set time, place, and location during regular business hours or at a time, place, and location mutually agreeable to the public officer and the requester. (2) Respond with an estimate of the costs for copying and production of the requested public records. (3) Deny the request in full. (4) Deny the request in part and grant the request in part by providing access to or an estimate of cost for copying and production of the requested public records that are not withheld or that have been redacted, excised, or deleted in order to remove the portion of the record in which an exemption, prohibition, or exception applies. (5) Deny the request, in whole or in part, on the grounds that the public officer is not the custodian of the requested public record and, if known to the public officer, identify the custodian to the requester. (6) Deny the request, in whole or in part, on the grounds that, to the best of the public officer’s knowledge, the requested record does not exist within the governmental agency.”
“If the public officer reasonably believes the amount of time and resources needed to comply with the request within the time required by this section will prevent the public officer or his or her staff from meeting their operational responsibilities, the public officer shall provide the requester the opportunity to limit the scope of the request so that it can be processed in an agreed upon time between the public officer and the requester. “
“A public officer may revise the initial reasons for a denial by sending the requester the revised reasons for the denial not more than 30 business days after the initial denial.”
“A public officer shall not be required to create a new public record if the record requested does not already exist. (g) Failure by a public officer to respond in accordance with this section to a request shall be deemed a denial of the request and shall constitute a violation of this section.”
“The disclosure of nonpublic or sensitive information constitutes a violation of this section if the public officer has made no effort to narrow the scope of the request or otherwise provide for proper disclosure under subsection (b). (h) This article is not intended to and does not affect any protections for sensitive or other nonpublic information provided under applicable law.”
The legislation does not actually have criminal penalties for public officials who break this law. The state of Alabama has a history of exceptionally weak open records laws.
SB196 passed the Alabama Senate 33 to 0. It now moves to the Alabama House of Representatives for their consideration.
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