Electronic Media Actual Cost to be passed on if USB or other electronic media is purchased by the County.1
Electronic Transmission, via email2 If feasible, the County will respond to a request for a public record by transmitting an electronic version to the Requestor in lieu of requiring in-person examination and copying of a public record. Iowa Code S 22.2(3).
Postage Charges
If the requestor chooses to have records mailed to them, postage will be charged at actual cost.
Labor Charges –
Hourly rate for non-exempt staff time needed for the reproduction of photocopies3
Hourly rate for exempt staff time needed to produce or review the documents5
Hourly rate for outside contractors, including but not limited to IT6, County Attorney7, County Engineer, and others
8. Questions
Actual cost(s) of employee time if time involved exceeds 30 minutes in most circumstance.4
Actual cost(s) of employee time.
Actual cost(s) of time
Any questions concerning the County's Public Records Policy or related procedures or fees should be directed to the Auditor.
1The County will use a requestor provided USB if the USB is delivered to the County in its’ original unopened packaging.
2 If feasible, the County will respond to a request for a public record by transmitting an electronic version to the Requestor in lieu of requiring in-person examination and copying of a public record. Iowa Code § 22.2(3).
Requestor in lieu of requiring in-person examination and copying of a public record. Iowa Code § 22.2(3).
3 Employee time begins when staff begins work on the request and is calculated based upon staff hourly rate of pay, not including benefits or other costs of employment.
4 The County will consider the regularity of requests made by a person or entity when deciding whether the cost or staff time should be passed on to the requestor. If, for example, the requestor is regularly requesting documents where the response time is less than 30 minutes per response, say 25 minutes per response, but when added together with time responding to other requests, per week or month, for example, the total time regularly exceeds thirty minutes, the County may charge for all time spent in preparation of the response.
5 Employee time begins when staff begins work on the request and is calculated based upon staff hourly rate of pay, not including benefits or other costs of employment.
6 The County will only charge or assess time spent by and billed by IT professionals to complete records requests if utilization of such professionals is reasonable given the specific circumstances of the request. If work by IT is unrelated or incidental to the request the requestor shall not be charged for said efforts/time.
7 Attorney fees will only be charged to the requestor, if at all, for the time an attorney spends reviewing confidential records to determine whether they are confidential.