MEMORANDUM
To: County Officials
From: Jim Grubiak
General Counsel
Date: April 17, 2012
Subject HB 397 Open Meetings/Records
Effective Immediately
Governor Deal signed HB 397 today. The bill is effective upon signature of the
Governor. As such, it is now in effect.
A copy of a summary of the changes to the open meetings and open records laws
is attached along with a copy of HB 397 as signed by the Governor. There are a
number of requirements that should be taken into account immediately.
I. OPEN MEETINGS
Meeting Defined. A covered meeting is a ?gathering? of a quorum of the
commissioners where official business, policy or a public matter is presented,
discussed or voted on.
Emails. Emails between commissioners do no create a meeting, but all are
deemed open records, including emails sent from personal devices that pertain
to county business.
Committees. Committees created by the commissioners are subject to all open
meeting requirements including notice, minutes and agenda requirements.
Voting. Generally, all voting must be in public. Exceptions pertain to
settlement negotiations and the acquisition, disposal or leasing of property.
Minutes. Minutes must identify the persons making and seconding all votes and
the name of each person voting for or against each proposal.
Executive Sessions.
Minutes must be kept. They are confidential but subject to review by a court in
camera.
If a non-exempt topic is brought up in executive session, the chairman must
rule the discussion out of order or adjourn the meeting if the discussion
continues.
Penalties. Increased from $500 to $1000. Civil penalties may also be imposed.
Penalties increase to $2500 for multiple violations in same year.
II. OPEN RECORDS
Records Retention. Records must be maintained in accordance with the state
records retention act. See OCGA ? 50-18-90.
Records Custodian. County can specify that written requests go to a ?records
custodian?. Custodian is someone designated by the commissioners. It can be
the chairman, the county manager, the clerk, or other person.
Response Time. Remains 3 days. But, the period does not start running until
the custodian receives the written request.
Recovering Costs.
Fees are reduced from $.25/page to $.10/page for standard size copies.
For odd-sized printed documents, actual costs can be recovered.
Cost of redaction by a full-time employee can be recovered.
County can charge for copies not picked up.
If estimated cost over $25, county notifies requestor and defers search until
requestor agrees to pay.
County can require prepayment if estimated cost over $500.
County can require prepayment for new requests, if previous fees not paid.
Electronic Records. Counties must produce electronic records, or if the
requestor prefers, printouts of electronic records or data from database
fields. A requestor may request that electronic records, data and data field be
produced in the format in which such data or records are kept by the county or
in a standard export format.
Exemptions. Personal emails, addresses, cell phone numbers and other personal
information in public records must be redacted.
Penalties. Increased from $500 to $1000. Civil penalties may also be imposed.
Penalties increase to $2500 for multiple violations in same year.
Please carefully review the above along with the more detailed summary attached
and the bill itself with your county attorneys.
Also, note that the new law will also be discussed at the ACCG Annual Meeting
in Savannah: a general session at 3:00Sunday afternoon, April 29th; as at the
County Attorneys CLE program Monday morning; and the County Clerks breakfast
meeting, Monday morning..
JFG
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