April 28, 2005, Introduced by Reps. Meyer and Brown and referred to the Committee on Government Operations.
A bill to provide for the maintenance, storage, retrieval, and
duplication of public records.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 1. (1) As used in this act:
(a) "Proprietary" means material such as indexes, records, or
files created by an office or department that creates, records, or
files them and that is statutorily responsible for the proprietary
material as mandated by law, whether or not all copies of that
index, record, or file are maintained in that office or department.
(b) "Public body" means any of the following, subject to
subsection (2):
(i) A state officer, employee, agency, department, division,
bureau, board, commission, council, authority, or other body in the
executive branch of the state government, but does not include the
governor or lieutenant governor, the executive office of the
governor or lieutenant governor, or employees thereof.
(ii) An agency, board, commission, or council in the
legislative branch of the state government.
(iii) A county, city, township, village, intercounty, intercity,
or regional governing body, council, school district, special
district, or municipal corporation, or a board, department,
commission, council, or agency thereof.
(iv) Any other body which is created by state or local
authority or which is primarily funded by or through state or local
authority.
(c) "Records reproduction act" means the records reproduction
act, 1992 PA 116, MCL 24.401 to 24.406.
(2) Public body does not include the judiciary, including the
office of the county clerk and employees thereof when acting in the
capacity of clerk to the circuit court.
Sec. 2. (1) A public body may use a medium authorized under
the records reproduction act to create, index, maintain, record, or
file a public record as required by law. An index, record, or file
is proprietary to the office or department of the public body that
creates, records, or files it and which office is statutorily
responsible as mandated by law.
(2) The constitutional officer or appointed official of that
office or department may waive fees for access to records or copies
of records created by a medium authorized under the records
reproduction act and shared with another public body for that
public body's official use with a written intergovernmental or
intragovernmental agreement that specifies that the public body
receiving the record is prohibited from providing access to the
record to a third party.
Sec. 3. An index required to be created by a county, city, or
township government for the purpose of reception and retrieval of
records is open to public examination and inspection as allowed by
law, but shall only be duplicated by the office responsible for
maintaining records, or that office's designee, solely for the
purpose of security and protection of the records.
Sec. 4. (1) An established fee or a fee that may be
established for copies of a public record, as authorized for sale
by statute, is considered a copy and perpetual maintenance fee.
Copy and perpetual maintenance fees shall be deposited in the
public body's general fund or as otherwise directed. Expenses of
maintaining and reproducing records and files according to the
records reproduction act shall be provided from the public body's
general fund. All fees authorized by statute for duplication or
reproduction of records take precedence over other fees or
legislation regarding access to those records, regardless of the
medium on which the records are created, stored, or duplicated.
(2) Unless otherwise requested, the proprietary office or
department shall provide copies of the requested records or files
in a paper format upon payment of the established or statutory fee.
Reproductions in any other medium, as approved by the records
reproduction act shall be based on the availability of the medium
in the proprietary office or department responsible for the record
or file and an established enhanced access policy at the discretion
of the elected official or department head. A record or copy of a
record produced by a method approved by the records reproduction
act has the same effect and force as a paper record or copy.
Sec. 5. An established fee or a fee that may be established,
as authorized by statute, for recording or filing of a public
record or document applies to all recordings and filings created or
presented in a medium approved by the records reproduction act. The
record or document must be reproducible in a printout or other
output readable by sight from the medium and in the sight-readable
format shall meet all requirements as established for the type of
record or file and comply with all requirements or prerequisites
for recording or filing. The sight-readable form shall be used to
determine the recording or filing fee and the fee for the
reproduction or copy of the record or file. Filings and recordings
in any approved medium other than paper shall only be acceptable if
the technology, media, and means to file, record, and reproduce the
record or document are currently available and operational in the
recording or filing office and an enhanced access policy exists. A
recording or filing of a record or document by a medium approved by
the records reproduction act has the same effect and force as a
paper filing or recording.