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RE 06-11-96.1 RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF COPPELL RESOLUTION NO. 061196.1 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COPPELL ESTABLISHING PROCEDURES AND COST OF PROVIDING PUBLIC INFORMATION PURSUANT TO THE PUBLIC INFORMATION ACT, CHAPTER 552 OF THE TEXAS GOVERNMENT CODE; PROVIDING A REPEALING CLAUSE AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. WHEREAS, the Seventy Fourth Legislature of the State of Texas made changes to the rules and regulations providing for the recovery of costs associated with requests for public information pursuant to Chapter 552 of the Texas Gove.rnment Code; and WHEREAS, the City Council desires to adopt the methods and procedures to be used in determining the amounts that may be charged to recover the full cost of providing copies of public information under the Public Information Act, Chapter 552 of the Texas Government Code, as amended; NOW THEREFORE BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COPPELL, TEXAS: SECTION 1. That attached hereto as Exhibit "A" are the methods and procedures to be used in determining the amounts that may be charged to recover the full cost of providing copies of public information of the City of Coppell, Texas, under the Public Information Act, Chapter 552 of the Texas Government Code, as amended. SECTION 2. This resolution shall become effective immediately from and after its passage, as the law and charter in such cases provide. SS516 SECTION 3. That all provisions of the resolutions of the City of Coppell, Texas in conflict with the provisions of this resolution be, and the same are hereby, repealed, and all other provisions of the resolutions of the City of Coppell, Texas not in conflict with the provisions of this resolution shall remain in full force and effect. DULY PASSED and approved by the City Council of the City of Coppell, Texas, on this the 11th day of June, 1996. APPROVED: TOM MORTON, MAYOR ATTEST: LINDA GRAU, CITY SECRETARY APPROVED AS TO FORM: PETER G. SMITH CITY ATTORNEY (JCM/ttl 03-15 -96) SS516 EXHIBIT "A" METHODS AND PROCEDURES FOR DETERMINING COST OF PROVIDING PUBLIC INFORMATION UNDER THE PUBLIC INFORMATION ACT I. DEFINITIONS The following words and terms, when used herein shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Full Cost - The sum of all direct costs plus a proportional share of overhead, or indirect cost. Full cost should be determined in accordance with the generally accepted methodologies. Nonstandard-size copy - A copy of public information that is made available to a requestor in any format other than a standard-size paper copy. Microfiche, microfilm, diskettes, magnetic tapes, CD-ROM, and nonstandard-size paper copies are examples of nonstandard- size copies. Standard-size copy - A priuted impression on one side of a piece of paper that measures up to 8½ by 14 inches. Each side of a piece of paper on which an impression is made is counted as a single copy. A piece of paper that is printed on both sides is counted as two copies. More than one building - Municipal buildings in operational use, excluding storage facilities shall be considered a single building for purposes of this resolution. II. CHARGES FOR PROVIDING COPIES OF PUBLIC INFORMATION A. The charges in this section are to recover costs associated with providing copies of public information and are based on estimated average costs to the City. B. Copy Charges 1. Standard-size copy - the charge for standard-size paper copies reproduced by means of an office machine copier or a computer printer is $. 12 per page. 2. Nonstandard-size copy - the charges for.nonstandard copies are: Diskette @ $ 1.25 Computer magnetic tape @ $12.50 VHS video cassette @ $ 3.10 Audio cassette @ $ 1.25 Paper copy @ $ .60 3. The charges in this subsection are to cover the cost of materials onto which the information is copied and do not reflect any additional charges that may be associated with a particular request. C. Personnel Charge 1. The charges for personnel costs incurred in processing a request for public information is $15.00 an hour, which is the average hourly cost, including fringe benefits, to the City for an employee as the date of these rules. Where applicable, the personnel charge should be prorated to cover the cost for personnel time spent to take requests, locate documents, and reproduce requested information. 2. A personnel charge should not be billed in connection with complying with requests that are for 50 or fewer pages of paper records to be copied, unless the records are located in more than one building or a remote storage facility. 3. Personnel time should not be recovered for any time spent by an attorney, legal assistant, or any other person who reviews the requested information: a. To determine whether the City will raise any exceptions to disclosure of the requested information under subchapter C of the Public Information Act; or b. To research or prepare a request for a ruling by the Attomey General's Office pursuant to the Public Information Act. D. Overhead Charges 1. In response to a request either for information that is for a nonstandard-size copy or for in excess of 50 pages of paper records, the City shall include in the charges direct and indirect costs, in addition to the personnel charge. This overhead charge would cover such costs as depreciation of capital assets, rent, maintenance and repair, utilities and administrative overhead. The charge will be made in accordance with the methodology described in Section II(D)(3). Although an exact calculation of costs will vary, the use of a standard charge will avoid complicatign in calculating such costs and will provide uniformity for charges made. 2. An overhead charge should not be made for requests for copies of 50 pages or less of paper records unless the pages to be copied are located in more than one building or a remote storage facility. 3. The overhead charge shall be computed at 25 percent of any charge made to cover personnel costs associated with a particular request. For example, if one hour of personnel time is expanded to respond to a particular request, the personnel charge would be $15.00 and the overhead charge would be $3.75. E. Microfiche and Microfilm Charge. 1. If the City already has information that exists on micro film or has micro film copies available, the charge is the total of the costs of making the copy of the fiche or film. If the requestor prefers to have a copy of the tiche or fill, itself, and the information on the tiche or film can be released on its entirety, the City should make a copy of the fiche or fill available and charge for the cost of having such a copy made. 2. If a master copy of information in micro film is maintained, the charge is $.12 per page for standard-size paper plus a charge to cover any personnel time and overhead spent in making the paper copies. F. Remote Document Retrieval Charge. 1. Due to limited on-site capacity of storage of documents, it is frequently necessary to store information that is not in current use in remote storage locations. To the extent that retrieval of documents results in a charge to comply with a request, it is permissible to recover costs of such services~ Where a charge is made for documentation retrieval, no additional personnel charge should be factored in for time spent locating the documents at the remote storage location. G. Computer Resource Charge. 1. The computer resource charge is a utilization charge for computers based on the amortized cost of acquisition, lease, operation, and maintenance of computer resources, which might include, but is not limited to, some or all of the following: central processing units (CPUs), servers, disk drives, local area networks (LANs), printers, tape drives,other peripheral devices, communications devices, software, and system utilities. 2. There is currently a wide range of computer capabilities. Many organizations with more advanced computer capabilities have already developed methodologies to recover the costs of computer utilization. NonetheleSs, in response to request for public information, the City will use the uniform charges set forth herein. The computer resource charges are not intended to substitute for cost recovery methodologies or charges made for purposes other than responding to public information request. 3. Uniform computer resource charges: Type of System Rate Mainframe $21.35 per minute Midrange $ 3.75 per minute Client/Server $1.25 per minute PC or LAN $ .60 per minute 4. The charge made to recover thd computer utilization cost is the actual time the computer takes to execute a particular program times the applicable rate. The CPU charge is not meant to apply to programming or printing time; rather, it is solely to recover costs associated with the actual time required by the computer to execute a program. This time flame most frequently will be a matter of seconds. If programming is required to comply with a particular request, the appropriate charge that may be recovered for programming time is set forth in the subsection below. No charge should be made for computer print-out time. H. Programming Time. 1. If a particular request requires a programmer to enter data in order to execute an existing program or to create a new program so that requested information may be accessed, the City may charge for the programmer's time. The average hourly salary of a programmer for the State of Texas is currently $26.00 an hour, including the fringe benefits, which is the charge to be used in these rules. Any charge for programming time should be prorated. Only programming services should be charged at this hourly rate. Any personnel time spent in performing services other than programming should be charged at the rate specified for personnel as described above. I. Miscellaneous Supplies. 1. The actual cost of miscellaneous suppl!es, such as labels, boxes, and other supplies used to produce the requested information may be added to the total charge for public information. J. Postal and Shipping Charges. 1. The City may add any related postal or shipping expenses which are necessary to transmit the reproduced information to the requesting party. K. Fax Charge. 1. The charge for faxes transmitted locally is $. 12 per page. The charge for long distance transmission is $.60 per page for a fax sent within the sender's area code, and $1.25 per page for a fax transmitted to a different area code. L. Sales Tax. 1. Sales tax should not be added on charges for public information. M. Review. 1. The City may reevaluate and update the charges recommended in these rules to insure that they are not in conflict with the rules and regulations promulgated by the General Services Commission. N. City Meeting Tapes. 1. Due to the regularity of requests for copies of the tapes of meetings held by the City Council and other boards and committees, a standard charge, inclusive of all costs associated with these tapes, shall be utilized for these requests. The standardized charge set forth in this section shall have no effect on the calculation of actual charges associated with other types of tapes, as set forth above. The charge for copies of audio and video tapes of regularly scheduled City Council meetings, or other committee or board meetings, if taped, shall be based on the following schedule. Video Tape Audio Tape Charge Tape Length Charge $10.00 per tape 0-2 hours $ 5.00 2-4 hours $10.00 4-6 hours $15.00'* * * (plus $5.00 for each additional two-hour length) III. INSPECTION OF PAPER RECORD IF COPY NOT REQUESTED A charge shall not be imposed for making available for inspection any public information that exists in a paper record, except that if a requested page contains confidential information that must be edited from the record before the information can be made available, the City shall charge for the cost of making the copies of the page from which information must be edited, and no other charges. IV. INSPECTION OF ELECTRONIC RECORD IF COPY NOT REQUESTED A. In response to a request to inspect information that exists in an electronic medium and that is not available directly on-line to the requestor, a charge may not be imposed for access to the information, unless complying with the request will require programming or manipulation of data. If programming or manipulation of data is required, the City shall notify the requestor before assembling the information and provide the requestor with an estimate of charges that will be imposed to make the information available. B. If public information exists in an electronic form on a computer owned or leased by the City and if the public has direct access to that computer through a computer network or other means, the electronic form of the information may be electronically copied from that computer without charge if accessing the information does not require processing, programming, or manipulation on the government-owned or government-leased computer before the information is copied. C. If public information exists in an electronic form on a computer owned or leased by the City and if the public has direct access to that computer through a computer network or other means and the information requires processing, programming, or manipulation before it can be electronically copied, the City may impose charges. D. If information is created or kept in an electronic form, the City is encouraged to explore options to separate out confidential information and to make public information available to the public through electronic access through a computer network or by other means. V. FORMAT FOR COPIES OF PUBLIC INFORMATION To the extent possible the City should attempt to accommodate a requesting party by providing information in the format requested. If a requesting party asks that the information be provided on a diskette, and the requested information is electronically stored, the City should provide the information on diskette. The extent to which a requestor can be accommodated will depend largely on the technological capability of the City to which the request is made. The City is not required to acquire software or programming capabilities that it does not already possess to accommodate a particular kind of request. VI. ESTIMATES AND WAIVERS OF PUBLIC INFORMATION CHARGES A. A party requesting copies of public information will not always be aware of the amount of time and cost that may be involved in complying with a particular request. Where a particular request will involve considerable time and resources to process, the City may advise the requesting party of what may be involved and to provide an estimate of the date of completion and the charges that may result. All efforts should be made to process requests as efficiently as possible. When the City charges for public information, full disclosure should be made to the requesting party as to how the charges were calculated. B. A deposit shall be required in the amount of the estimated charges if such charges exceed $100.00. VII. PAYMENT BY REQUESTING PARTY A. The City shall require payment of the costs associated with a request prior to providing the information to the requesting party. Costs associated with the preparation of public information requests are considered overdue, and are outstanding costs owed to the City if not paid within ten (10) days after the date the public information is made available. B. If a requesting party, on one or more occasion, requests information from the City but subsequently elects not to pay for the costs associated with the request, the requesting party will be required to submit a deposit or bond for payment of the anticipated costs of the preparation of any subsequent request made by that requesting party, prior to the City taking action on any request in which the City may incur costs. The requesting party will be required to submit a deposit or bond, as outlined above, with every request for copies of public information made by the party until such time as all outstanding costs owed to the City in conjunction with the preparation of public information requests are paid in full. VIII. EXAMPLE OF CHARGES FOR COPIES OF PUBLIC INFORMATION A. The following tables present a few examples of the calculations of charges for information: TABLE 1 Copies of Paper Records (fewer than 50 pages): $. 12 per copy x number of copies (standard-size paper copies) + Postage and shiooin~ (if aoolicable') $ TOTAL CHARGE TABLE 2 Copies of Paper Records (more than 50 pages or location in more than one building or a remote storage facility): $. 12 per copy x number of copies (standard-size copies) or cost of nonstandard copy (e.g., diskette) + Personnel charge (if applicable) + Overhead charge (if applicable) + Document retrieval charge (if applicable) + Actual cost of miscellaneous supplies (if applicable) + Postage and shippin~ (if applicable) $ TOTAL CHARGE IX. CITY CHARGE SCHEDULE The following is a summary of the charges for copies of public information that have been adopted by the City: Service Rendered Charge ( 1 ) Standard-size paper copy $ . 12 per page (2) Nonstandard-size copy (A) Diskette $1.25 each (B) Magnetic tape $12.50 each (C) VHS video cassette $ 3.10 each (D) Audio cassette $1.25 each (E) Paper copy $ .60 each (F) Other Actual cost (3) Personnel charge $15.00 per hour (4) Overhead charge 25% of personnel charge (5) Micro~che or microfilm charge (A) Papercopy $ . 12 per page (B) Fiche or film copy Actual cost (6) Remote document retfieval charge Actual cost (7) Computer resource charge (A) Mainframe $21.35 per minute (B) Midrange $ 3.75 per minute (C) Client/Server $1.25 per minute (D) PC or LAN $ .60 per minute (8) Programming time charge $26.00 per hour (9) Miscellaneous supplies Actual cost (10) Postage and shipping charge Actual cost (11) Fax charge (A) local $ . 12 per page (B) long distance, same area code $ .60 per page (C) long distance, different area $1.25 per page code (12) Other costs Actual cost X. BILLING FORM The City may use the following billing form or a reasonable facsimile to itemize the charges made for public information. Requests that are for 5 1 or more pages of paper records, paper records located in more than one building or a remote storage facility, or copies of other than paper records (i.e. diskettes, cassettes, computer tapes, etc.) PUBLIC INFORMATION CHARGES BILLING Description of Information Date Agency/Company Method of Payment: Address Cash Check Other Telephone No. ( ) - Number Total Standard-size Paper Copies __ @ $. 12/page $ Nonstandard-size Copies: - Diskette __ @ $1.25/ea. $ - Magnetic Tape __ @ $12.50/ea. $ - VHS Video Cassette __ ~ $3.10/ca. $ - Audio Cassette __ @ $1.25/ca. $ - Paper __ @ $.60/ea. $ - Other (actual cost) $ Personnel Charges __ @ $15.00/hr. $ Overhead Charges (25%) of Total Personnel Charges) __ x .25 $ Computer Resource Charges: - Midframe __ @ $21.35/min. $ - Midrange __ @ $3.75/min. $ - Client/Server __ @ $1.25/min. $ - PC or LAN __ @ $.60/min. $ Programming Time __ @ $26.00/hr. $ Postage/Shipping Charges (actual cost) $ Fax Charges: - Local __ @ $.12/page $ - Long Distance/Same Area Code __ @ $.60/page $ - Long Distance/Other Area Code __ @ $1.00/page $ Other Charges (Description: ) (actual cost) $ *Note: Sales tax is not applicable on public records