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(123rd General Assembly)(Substitute House Bill Number 539)
AN ACT
To amend section 149.43 of the Revised Code to exclude from the Public Records
Law information pertaining to the recreational activities of a person under 18
years of age, to exclude from the exception to the definition of a "public
record" certain peace officer residential and familial information, to include
the Superintendent and troopers of the State Highway Patrol within the
definition of a peace officer for purposes of the peace officer residential
and familial information exception, and to declare an emergency.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio:
SECTION 1 . That section 149.43 of the Revised Code be amended to read as
follows:
Sec. 149.43. (A) As used in this section: (1) "Public record" means any record that is kept by any
public office, including, but not limited to, state, county,
city, village, township, and school district units, except
that "public record" does not mean any of the following: (a) Medical records; (b) Records pertaining to probation and parole proceedings; (c) Records pertaining to actions under section 2151.85 and division
(C) of section 2919.121 of
the Revised Code and to appeals of actions arising under
those sections; (d) Records pertaining to adoption proceedings, including the
contents of an adoption file maintained by the department of health under
section 3705.12 of the Revised Code; (e) Information in a record contained in the putative father registry
established by section 3107.062 of the Revised Code, regardless of whether the
information is held by the department of job and family
services or, pursuant to
section 5101.313 of the Revised Code, the division of child support in the
department or a child support enforcement agency; (f) Records listed in division (A) of section 3107.42 of the Revised Code or
specified in division (A) of section 3107.52 of the Revised Code; (g) Trial preparation records; (h) Confidential law enforcement investigatory records; (i) Records containing information that is confidential under
section 2317.023 or 4112.05 of the Revised Code; (j) DNA records stored in the DNA database
pursuant to section 109.573 of the Revised Code; (k) Inmate records released by the department of rehabilitation and
correction to
the department of youth services or a court of record pursuant to division (E)
of section 5120.21 of the Revised Code; (l) Records maintained by the department of youth services pertaining to
children in its custody released by the department of youth services to the
department of rehabilitation and correction pursuant to section 5139.05 of the
Revised Code; (m) Intellectual property records; (n) Donor profile records; (o) Records maintained by the department of human job and
family services pursuant to
section 5101.312 of the Revised Code; (p) Peace officer residential and familial information; (q) In the case of a county hospital operated
pursuant to Chapter
339.
of the Revised Code, information that constitutes a trade secret,
as defined in section 1333.61 of the Revised Code; (r) Information pertaining to the recreational activities of a person
under the age of eighteen; (s) Records the release of which is prohibited by state or
federal law. (2) "Confidential law enforcement investigatory record"
means any record that pertains to a law enforcement matter of a
criminal, quasi-criminal, civil, or administrative nature, but
only to the extent that the release of the record would create a
high probability of disclosure of any of the following: (a) The identity of a suspect who has not been charged
with the offense to which the record pertains, or of an
information source or witness to whom confidentiality has been
reasonably promised; (b) Information provided by an information source or
witness to whom confidentiality has been reasonably promised,
which information would reasonably tend to disclose the source's or witness's
identity; (c) Specific confidential investigatory techniques or
procedures or specific investigatory work product; (d) Information that would endanger the life or physical
safety of law enforcement personnel, a crime victim, a witness,
or a confidential information source. (3) "Medical record" means any document or combination of
documents, except births, deaths, and the fact of admission to or
discharge from a hospital, that pertains to the medical history,
diagnosis, prognosis, or medical condition of a patient and that
is generated and maintained in the process of medical treatment. (4) "Trial preparation record" means any record that
contains information that is specifically compiled in reasonable
anticipation of, or in defense of, a civil or criminal action or
proceeding, including the independent thought processes and
personal trial preparation of an attorney. (5) "Intellectual property record" means a record,
other than a financial or administrative record, that is produced or collected
by or for faculty or staff of a state institution of higher learning in the
conduct of or as a result of study or research on an educational, commercial,
scientific, artistic, technical, or scholarly issue, regardless of whether the
study or research was sponsored by the institution alone or in conjunction
with
a governmental body or private concern, and that has not been publicly
released, published, or patented. (6) "Donor profile record" means all records about donors or potential
donors to a public institution of higher education except the names and
reported addresses of the actual donors and the date, amount, and conditions
of the actual donation. (7) "Peace officer residential and familial information" means
information that discloses any either of the following: (a) Any information maintained in a
personnel record of a peace officer that discloses any of the
following: (i) The address of the actual personal residence of a peace
officer, except for the state or political subdivision in which the peace
officer resides; (b)(ii) Information compiled from referral to or
participation in an
employee assistance program;
(c)(iii) The social security number, the residential
telephone number,
any bank account, debit card, charge card, or credit card number, or the
emergency telephone number of, or any medical
information pertaining to, a peace officer;
(d)(iv) The name of any beneficiary of employment benefits,
including,
but not limited to, life insurance benefits, provided to a peace officer by
the peace officer's employer;
(e)(v) The identity and amount of any charitable or
employment
benefit deduction made by the peace officer's employer from the peace
officer's compensation unless the amount of the deduction is required by state
or federal law;
(f)(vi) The name, the residential address, the name of the
employer,
the address of the employer, the social security number, the residential
telephone number, any bank account, debit card, charge card, or credit card
number, or the emergency telephone number
of the spouse, a former spouse, or any child of a peace officer.
(b) any record that identifies a person's occupation as a peace
officer other than statements required to include the disclosure of that fact
under the campaign
finance law. As used in divisions (A)(7) and (B)(5) of this section,
"peace officer"
has the same meaning as in section 109.71 of the Revised Code, except that
"peace officer" and also includes the superintendent and troopers of
the state highway patrol; it does not include the
sheriff of a county or a supervisory employee who, in the absence of the
sheriff, is authorized to stand in for, exercise the authority of, and perform
the duties of the sheriff. (8) "Information pertaining to the recreational activities of a
person under the age of eighteen"
means information that is kept in the ordinary course of business by a public
office, that pertains to the recreational activities of a person under the age
of eighteen years, and that
discloses any of the following: (a) The address or telephone number of a person under the age of
eighteen or the address or telephone number of that person's parent, guardian,
custodian, or emergency contact person; (b) The social security number, birth date, or photographic image
of a person under the age of eighteen; (c) Any medical record, history, or information pertaining to a
person under the age of eighteen; (d) Any additional information sought or required about a person
under the age of eighteen for the purpose of allowing that person to
participate in any recreational activity conducted or sponsored by a public
office or to use or
obtain admission privileges to any recreational facility owned or operated by
a public office. (B)(1) Subject to division (B)(4) of this section, all public records shall
be promptly prepared and made
available for inspection to any person at all reasonable times
during regular business hours. Subject to division (B)(4) of this section,
upon request, a public office or person
responsible for public records shall make copies available at
cost, within a reasonable period of time. In order to facilitate
broader access to public records, public offices shall
maintain public records in a manner that they can be made
available for inspection in accordance with this division. (2) If any person chooses to obtain a copy of a public record in
accordance with division (B)(1) of this section,
the public office or person responsible for the public record shall permit
that person to
choose to have the public record duplicated upon paper, upon the same medium
upon which the public office or person responsible for the public record keeps
it, or upon
any other medium upon which the public office or person responsible for the
public record determines
that it reasonably can be duplicated
as an integral part of the normal operations of the public office or person
responsible for the public record. When the person
seeking the copy makes a choice under this division, the public office or
person responsible for the public record shall provide a copy of it in
accordance
with the choice made by the person seeking the copy. (3) Upon a request made in accordance with division (B)(1) of
this section, a public office or person responsible for public records
shall transmit a copy of a public record to any person by United
States mail within a reasonable period of time after receiving the
request for the
copy. The public office or person responsible for the public record may
require the person making
the request to pay in advance the cost of postage and other supplies used in
the mailing. Any public office
may adopt a policy and procedures that it will follow in
transmitting, within a reasonable period of time after receiving
a request, copies of public records by
United
States mail pursuant to this
division. A public office that adopts a policy and procedures
under this division shall comply with them in performing its
duties under this division. In any policy and procedures adopted under this division, a
public office may limit the number of records requested by a person that
the office will transmit by United States mail to ten per
month, unless the person certifies to the office in writing that the person
does not intend to use or forward the requested records, or the information
contained
in them, for commercial purposes. For purposes of this division, "commercial"
shall be narrowly construed and does not include reporting or gathering news,
reporting or gathering information to assist citizen oversight or
understanding of the operation or activities of government, or nonprofit
educational research. (4) A public office or person responsible for public records is
not required to permit a person who is incarcerated pursuant to a
criminal conviction or a juvenile adjudication to inspect or to
obtain a copy of any public record concerning a criminal
investigation or prosecution or concerning what would be a
criminal investigation or prosecution if the subject of the
investigation or prosecution were an adult, unless the request to
inspect or to obtain a copy of the record is for the purpose of
acquiring information that is subject to release as a public
record under this section and the judge who imposed the sentence
or made the adjudication with respect to the person, or the
judge's successor in office, finds that the information sought in
the public record is necessary to support what appears to be a
justiciable claim of the person. (5) Upon written request made and signed by a journalist on or after the
effective date of this amendment December 16,
1999, a
public office, or person responsible for public records, having custody of
the records of the agency employing a specified peace officer shall disclose
to the
journalist the address of the actual personal residence of the peace
officer and, if the peace officer's spouse, former spouse, or
child is employed by a public office, the name and address of the
employer of the peace officer's spouse, former spouse, or child.
The request shall include the journalist's name and title and the
name and address of the journalist's employer and shall state
that disclosure of the information sought would be in the public
interest. As used in division (B)(5) of this section, "journalist" means a
person engaged in, connected with, or employed by any news medium, including a
newspaper, magazine, press association, news
agency, or wire service, a radio or television station, or a
similar medium, for the purpose of gathering, processing,
transmitting, compiling, editing, or disseminating information for the
general public. (C) If a person allegedly is aggrieved by the failure of a
public office to promptly prepare a public record and to make
it available to the person for inspection in accordance with
division
(B) of this section, or if a person who has requested a copy of a
public record allegedly is aggrieved by the failure of a public office or the
person
responsible for the public record to make a copy available to
the person allegedly aggrieved in accordance
with division (B) of this section, the person allegedly aggrieved
may commence a mandamus action to obtain a judgment that orders
the public office or the person responsible for the public
record to comply with division (B) of this section and that
awards reasonable attorney's fees to the person that instituted
the mandamus action. The mandamus action may be commenced in the
court of common pleas of the county in which division (B) of this
section allegedly was not complied with, in the supreme court
pursuant to its original jurisdiction under Section 2 of Article
IV, Ohio Constitution, or in the court of appeals for the
appellate district in which division (B) of this section
allegedly was not complied with pursuant to its original
jurisdiction under Section 3 of Article IV, Ohio Constitution. (D) Chapter 1347. of the Revised Code does not limit the
provisions of this section. (E)(1) The bureau of motor vehicles may adopt rules pursuant to
Chapter 119. of the Revised Code to reasonably
limit the number of bulk commercial special extraction requests made by a
person for the same records or for updated records during a calendar year.
The rules may include provisions for charges to be made for bulk commercial
special
extraction requests for the actual cost of the bureau, plus special extraction
costs, plus ten per cent. The bureau may charge for
expenses for redacting information, the release of which is prohibited by
law. (2) As used in divisions (B)(3) and (E)(1) of this section: (a) "Actual cost" means the cost of depleted supplies, records
storage media costs, actual mailing and alternative delivery costs, or other
transmitting costs, and any direct equipment operating and maintenance costs,
including actual costs paid to private contractors for
copying services. (b) "Bulk commercial special extraction request" means a request
for copies of a record for information in a format other than the format
already available, or information that cannot be extracted without examination
of all items in a records series, class of records, or data base by a person
who intends to use or
forward the copies for surveys, marketing, solicitation, or resale for
commercial purposes. "Bulk commercial special extraction request" does not
include a request by a person who gives assurance to the bureau that the
person making the request does not intend to use or forward the requested
copies for surveys, marketing,
solicitation, or resale for commercial purposes. (c) "Commercial" means profit-seeking production, buying, or
selling of any good, service, or other product. (d) "Special extraction costs" means the cost of the time spent
by the lowest paid employee competent to perform the task, the actual amount
paid to outside private contractors employed by the bureau, or the actual cost
incurred to create computer programs to make the special extraction. "Special
extraction costs" include any charges paid to a public agency for computer or
records services. (3) For purposes of divisions (E)(1)
and (2) of this section, "commercial surveys, marketing, solicitation, or
resale" shall be narrowly construed and does not include reporting or
gathering
news, reporting or gathering information to assist citizen oversight or
understanding of the operation or activities of government, or nonprofit
educational research. SECTION 2 . That existing section 149.43 of the Revised Code
is hereby repealed.
SECTION 3 . This act is hereby declared to be an emergency measure necessary
for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety. The
reason for the necessity is that immediate action is required for the bill's
recreational activities provisions to apply to the summer 2000 recreational
season. Therefore, this act shall go into immediate effect.
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