Information and data provided by any person or obtained from any report, questionnaire, permit application, permit and monitoring program and from inspections shall not be made available to the public or any other governmental agency, unless required by law.
(A) Upon submission of information in any form, it shall be the obligation of the submitter to separate all confidential and trade secret material from any material subject to disclosure under the law.
(B) Any requests made under the law for information containing confidential or trade secrets shall be brought to the attention of the person requesting confidentiality of its trade secrets by certified mail return receipt requested. The notification shall advise the person requesting confidentiality of the decision of the administering agency regarding release of the confidential information. In no event will the confidential information be released until five days have elapsed from date notice is sent by registered mail.
(C) Within 72 hours after receipt of notification, the person requesting confidentiality of its trade secrets shall have the burden to initiate appropriate actions at law or otherwise to protect its confidential or trade secrets from disclosure, and must demonstrate the public disclosure of confidential or trade secrets is likely to cause substantial harm to his or her competitive position.
(D) (1) Any individual who releases information containing confidential or trade secrets in violation of the law or this section shall be subject to disciplinary action by his or her employer for malfeasance and willful neglect of official duties, and may further be guilty of misuse of confidential information under state statutes.
(2) The provisions of this section shall, in no way, prohibit or limit the exchange of information, confidential or otherwise, between public agencies when the exchange is serving a legitimate governmental need or is necessary in the performance of legitimate government function.
(E) The county's Health Department shall be the repository for all trade secret information.
(Ord. G-87-193, passed 7-6-1987)