Consideration of the proposal to send a letter to the Maryland Department of General Services supporting the request of the “Move the Courthouse Steering Committee” for a waiver of production charges imposed for responding to the document request submi

Mayor and Council

For the meeting on:	June 9, 2008
Department:	City Attorney
Responsible staff:	Anita McCombs, Assistant to the City Attorney phone: (240) 314 - 8151 amccombs@rockvillemd.gov

Subject
Consideration of the proposal to send a letter to the Maryland Department of General Services supporting the request of the “Move the Courthouse Steering Committee” for a waiver of production charges imposed for responding to the document request submitted by the Steering Committee pursuant to the Maryland Public Information Act. (“MPIA”)

Recommendation
It is recommended that the Mayor and Council consider sending a letter supporting the Steering Committee’s request for a waiver of production charges. A draft letter prepared for the Mayor and Council’s consideration is located at Attachment A.

Discussion
In considering this request, the Mayor and Council should be aware of implications for the City's policies and practices with regard to the City's charges for citizen requests to produce documents. The Steering Committee has submitted to the City a MPIA request for documents similar to the request it made to the Department of General Services Administration. Responding to that request has involved a significant amount of staff time. The City has not charged the Steering Committee for production costs. However, because of this and other recent document requests that require a large amount of staff time to research, retrieve, and reproduce both electronic and paper records, the City Manager’s office is currently reviewing the document production policies of other jurisdictions. A draft policy for the City will be prepared this summer after further research. It is important that any City policy the City adopts pertaining to document requests be fair and consistently implemented.

Mayor and Council History
This is item has been brought before the Mayor and Council at Councilmember Britton's request on May 19, 2008, under "New Business."

Fiscal Impact
There is no fiscal impact associated with this agenda item.

Attachments

Department Head:

Paul Glasgow, City Attorney
Approved on: 06/05/2008

Deputy City Manager:

Catherine Tuck Parrish, Deputy City Manager
Approved on: 05/29/2008

City Manager:

Scott Ullery, City Manager
Approved on: 06/05/2008