1. Upon receipt of a written request for access to a record, the Township shall make a good faith effort to determine if the record requested is a public record and whether the Township has possession, custody or control of the identified record. When doing so, the Township will respond as promptly as possible under the circumstances existing at the time of the request. Under the Right-to-Know Law, the Township must send a response within 5 business days of receipt of the written request for access, or else the written request shall be deemed denied. For the purposes of this policy, a business day is any Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, except those days when the Township's office is closed for all or part of a day due to a holiday.
2. Upon receipt of a written request for access, the Officer shall determine if one of the following applies:
A. The request for access requires redaction of a record in accordance with the Right-to-Know Law.
B. The request for access requires the retrieval of a record stored in a remote location.
C. A timely response to the request for access can not be accomplished due to bona fide and specified staffing limitations.
D. A legal review is necessary to determine whether the record is a record subject to access under the Right-to-Know Law.
E. The requester has not complied with the Township's policies regarding access to records.
F. The requester refuses to pay applicable fees authorized by the Right-to-Know Law.
G. The extent or nature of the request precludes a response within the required time period of 5 business days.
3. Upon a determination that one of the factors listed above applies, the Officer shall send written notice to the requester within 5 business days of receipt of the request for access. The notice shall include a statement notifying the requester that the request for access is being reviewed, the reason for the review, a reasonable date that a response is expected to be provided, and an estimate of applicable fees owed when the record becomes available. Information which the Township redacts in accordance with the Right-to-Know Law shall be deemed a denial.
4. If the date that a response is expected to be provided is in excess of 30 calendar days, following the 5 business days allowed for above, the request for access shall be deemed denied unless the requester has agreed in writing to an extension to the date specified in the notice. If the requester agrees to the extension, the request shall be deemed denied on the day following the date specified in the notice if the Township has not provided a response by that date.
5. For purposes of this policy, the “mailing date” shall be the date affixed to a: (A) response from the Officer to a request, which is to be the date the response is deposited in the U.S. mail; (B) final determination from the Officer, which is to be the date the final determination is deposited in the U.S. mail.
(Res. 2008-04, 12/4/2008, § 1)