Category:   

Public Records

Can a School Board charge a reasonable fee to reproduce the public record that is requested? Who can set the fee?
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Can a public records request be in the form of an email, as opposed to “in person” or by “writing”?
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How long must the recordings of meetings as required by R.S. 42:23 be maintained by a public entity?
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Are the audio recordings of their meetings public and may the public listen to them?
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Is a draft audit report and draft finding a document that is subject to a public record request in the hands of the local entity?
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What payroll documents are considered public records?
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Is there a formal law and/or statute concerning records retention for local governments?
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A Charter School has received a Public Records Request from a private vendor who intends to sell the information to third parties. Must they provide the information to the requestor?
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The Village received a public records request for bank statements. These statements contain copies of payroll checks that include the names and home addresses of people who work for the Village. It is the Village’s understanding that under R.S. 44:5(B)(11), the names and addresses of any employees who have requested that they be kept confidential should be redacted before the bank statements are provided to the requestor. Is that correct?
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What are the legal requirements regarding records retention?
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The current assessor’s opponent in the election wants her to give him the personnel records showing the employees and their salaries from 2005 to date. The assessor knows the salaries are public record and the totals are shown in the budget. Does the assessor have to produce records that show the salary of each employee to her political opponent?
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Is a municipality required to publish its annual audit?
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How long does a public entity need to keep financial records?
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In researching the Public Records Law, there are references to a "schedule" of fees. Where is the schedule located? Also, is there a requirement for receiving documents electronically, paper, etc. that an entity can choose?
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Are there guidelines that the LLA puts forth on details for document retention?
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A parish board that negotiates economic development deals with businesses that have to be approved by the parish council, wants to know if they can adopt the public records exception provided by statute to the Louisiana Department of Economic Development to keep their files exempt from Public Records Law. They claim that if local governments can adopt the State Procurement Code and other State laws on things such as travel, traffic control, etc, so why not the Public Records Law exception. The DA’s office has said no, that they would only be able to utilize exceptions that would specifically apply to the parish board, such as proprietary and trade secret information. Is this correct?
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Are there any statutory provisions regarding the nature of documentation (i.e. Receipts, etc) that must be kept to support purchases of materials, supplies, and contracts for services?
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What is the time period the Hospital Services District must keep audio recordings of their meetings?
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How should the Village handle public records requests from entity seeking docket and case info for the Village’s Mayor’s Court?
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What is the application of the Public Records Law to the work papers of the City's Internal Auditor?
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What is the statute that refers to making a complaint to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor (LLA) to be confidential?
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How long must District Public Defenders retain source documents (invoices, checks, etc.) that they have kept for audit preparation?
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Is a draft audit report and draft finding a document which is subject to a public record request in the hands of the local body?
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The Official Journal of local political subdivision has requested that all entities that utilize their services as an Official Journal send all public notices/advertisements in a word document format without the signatures. Is it legally allowable for the entity to send the minutes in a word document for publication as requested rather than with the appropriate and official signatures?
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Are minutes that have not been approved in a subsequent open meeting subject to a public records request?
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Q.1.Who can I contact when a public entity fails to respond to multiple requests for public records? Q. 2. Where can I report information regarding the possible misappropriation or abuse of public funds?
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The agency, a woman’s shelter, has closed and they are in the process of storing various records to retain until no longer required to maintain them. How long should they keep the shelter’s CPA and accounting records?
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Councilwoman has asked for financial records for the Town (paid and unpaid invoices for a recent time period). Can the Town Clerk charge her the same fees for copies of public records that would be charged to a member of the public making the same request?
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Under the Public Records Act of Louisiana, can I request documents showing the hours worked and salaries paid to the Fire Chief and Assistant Fire Chief of the Fire Protection District?
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The town received a public records request regarding employee participation in MPERS. Is that information that is subject to the Public Records Law?
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How should a political subdivision responding to public records request from member of media that contain confidential information or that may be exempt from disclosure?
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May board members of a Parish Sales Tax Board provide Sales Tax return information they receive as part of their official duties to others who request it?
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Q.1. Does a person making a public records request have to be a resident of the state? Q.2. When a person makes a public records request, does the entity have three days to produce the records or three days to respond to the request? Q.3. The court’s ticket system generates reports with the person’s name, address, telephone number, email address, as well as incident, date of incident, disposition and date of disposition. Should all of this information be turned over pursuant to a public records request, or should the address, telephone number and email addresses be redacted (leaving only the person’s name, date of incident, violation, disposition and date of disposition)?
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The Town Council has passed an ordinance to destroy the tape recordings of council meeting after 1 year. Is that legal?
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Are records of a public entity’s financial transactions (including their budgets) considered Public Records subject to review by law?
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Can the Gravity Drainage District respond and/or provide information to a request made by an individual for a list of all its employees that are covered under its health coverage for the time period 2010-2011?
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Is there a law that states a citizen’s personal information that is provided to a police officer during the filing of a complaint can be omitted from official records in order to protect it from a public records request?
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How does the Clerk of Court decide on the fees he charges for filings and for answering public records requests?
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Q.1. City Hall is currently closed due to COVID-19. How should they handle a public records request to view all time cards for employees of the town? Q.2. How should City Hall be re-opened as the State goes into Phase II?
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There appear to be two timelines in the calculation of public records requests deadlines: five days and three days. Are these two different timelines, or was the timeline increased?
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The District makes a recording of all of their meetings via a computer. The recording is stored on the District’s cloud. A member of the public has requested a copy of the recording of one of the meetings. Is the recording of the meeting a Public Record? If yes, how can they supply a copy to the requestor (i.e., can they email the file to the requestor or do they have to download it to a flash drive or CD)?
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Q.1. The Parish Ambulance District donated a used vehicle to the Parish Police Jury. My reading of the law is that this would not be allowed as the Police Jury handles public works, not public safety. Is this correct? Q.2. Does a member (or members) of the ambulance district have the right to know the salaries of the Ambulance Districts employees? Can the Director furnish this salary information to Board members outside of an open meeting?
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How long does a municipality have to keep its records (i.e. billing records, phone bills, water bills, etc) before they can be destroyed or discarded?
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