Sec. 2-148. Preservation of records.
(a) Each department head shall be responsible for the preservation and retrieval of public records within the department's possession or jurisdiction in compliance with state statute and this Code.
(b) The city shall promulgate rules and procedures for properly responding to records production matters under a CORA request which rules and procedures shall comply with all of the requirements of CORA as well as with the following mandatory provisions:
(1) In those instances where the response time for production of a response under a CORA request will exceed one hour of staff time, the city shall provide an initial good faith estimate of the fees for compliance with the CORA request, which response shall not be undertaken until a deposit equal to 50 percent of the estimated cost has been deposited with the city clerk by the person or entity initiating the request and in no case shall the final fee exceed 20 percent more than the initial estimate. The initial good faith estimate shall conform to the procedures currently set by the city manager or to any successor protocols. In the event that the final production cost is less than the deposit, the difference shall be refunded to the requestor as soon as possible after the response is delivered.
(2) When the requestor is an individual Aurora resident as evidenced by their address or by their attestation to that fact, the city shall provide up to one hour of staff assistance for the purpose of helping the requester define and refine the request to make it more effective and less costly. City public information staff will assist media in providing accurate and timely information were possible and direct media to the CORA process as needed. The city realizes that the media provides a very important service to the public and therefore the city shall, whenever reasonably feasible, ensure a timely response to any media CORA request.
(3) In no case shall the CORA response include duplicate pages or data if the CORA requestor has designated that the response to their request be "de-duped," meaning checked for duplicative responses. In the event that a duplicative response document is inadvertently produced, the requestor shall be entitled to receive a refund of any copy fee not only for the duplicative document, but for twice the copy charge for the duplicative pages produced and charged for.
(4) If a page is more than 50 percent redacted there can be no charge for that copy.
(5) Research fees shall not include any work by any staff members associated with or related to the assertion of any privileges or refusal to provide the requested materials.
(6) Staff overtime to comply with the state-mandated time requirements shall not be charged to the requestor.
(7) When materials are withheld for any privilege or legal basis, the city shall prepare at no cost to the requestor the specific exemption authorizing such information to be withheld. In order for the requestor to be aware and fully informed of the unavailability of any requested materials the assertion of a privilege shall be provided upon request for any and all redacted pages, paragraphs or sentences. No assertion of a blanket or generic privilege shall be permitted.
(8) When a requestor offers to provide assistance in refining the search, including review of a voluminous number of pages of data, the offer shall not be summarily rejected and the city clerk's office shall provide a suitable office space for the requestor and a staff member to review and further define the parameters of the request for the relevant documents. If the City is aware at this juncture of any privilege or legal rationale for nondisclosure that fact shall be disclosed immediately, in writing, during the meeting.
(9) By state law the response period is fixed at three business days for routine responses and an additional seven days for unusually complex or voluminous responses and shall not be delayed unless agreed to by the requestor in writing. The requestor shall not be pressured to grant a delay. In this regard the city clerk and city attorney offices shall prepare a written CORA work plan so as to be able to comply with the mandatory state response time.
(10) City staff shall track and collect the following data and present the data to the management and finance committee biannually:
a. The number of CORA requests received;
b. The number of cost estimates provided to requestors;
c. The number of times the requestor did not respond to the cost estimate and abandoned the CORA request;
d. A description of any litigation filed or resolved involving a CORA request;
e. A list of the CORA response cost estimates expressed in terms of dollars;
f. A list of those situations where the cost estimate was exceeded with the excess expressed in terms of dollars; and
g. Prepare a list reflecting the number which appear to be from Aurora residents and those which are not from Aurora residents, where possible, using the CORA applications received.
(11) A copy of this section of the Code shall be made available to anyone who comes to the city clerk's office and expresses an intention and/or interest in submitting a CORA request.
(12) A requestor shall be entitled to ask the city clerk any questions regarding any aspect of processing a CORA request, including any aspect of the Code section.
(13) If the requestor is dissatisfied or confused with the response of the city clerk, the requestor shall be entitled to directly contact the city manager.
(14) If the requestor agrees to an extension, as described in (9), above beyond the statutorily provided time limits, that extension shall in no event exceed ten additional business days.
(15) Requests for documents in digital format require special responses, but are otherwise subject to the same rules.
a. If the digital format of the public record is searchable, but not sortable, then the custodian shall provide a copy in a searchable format (such as Word or a searchable portable document format (a.k.a. "PDF")).
b. If the digital format of the public record is sortable, then the custodian shall provide a copy in a sortable format (such as Excel or a comma-separated values format (a.k.a. "CSV)).
c. If a record is stored by a custodian in a digital format that is not searchable or sortable, (such as scanned or saved document in non-searchable PDF format), the custodian is not required to convert it to a searchable or sortable format. The custodian may provide it in the digital format in which it is stored.
d. If the record is either searchable or sortable, the custodian does not have to provide records in those formats if:
1. It is not technologically or practically feasible after making reasonable inquiries to permanently remove information permitted to be withheld; or
2. It is not technologically or practically feasible to provide a copy of the record in a searchable or sortable format; or
3. The custodian would be required to purchase software or create additional programming or functionality of its existing software to remove information.
e. If the custodian is not able to comply with a request for a public record in a requested format, the custodian shall produce the record in an alternative format and shall provide a written declaration as to the reason(s) for not being able to provide the information in the requested format.
(16) The city clerk's office shall make available to the public a list of helpful suggestions on how to submit an effective and less costly request.
(c) Violation of this section does not constitute a criminal violation. City Code section 1-13 general penalty, as amended, shall not apply to violations of this section. (Code 1979, § 2-12; Ord. No. 2019-30, § 1, 7-15-2019)