To amend sections 149.011 and 149.43 and to enact section 109.43 of the Revised Code to revise the Public Records Law.

Section 1. That sections 149.011 and 149.43 be amended and section 109.43 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:

Sec. 109.43. (A) The attorney general shall develop, provide, and certify training programs and seminars for all officials elected to a local or statewide office in order to enhance the officials' knowledge of the duty to provide access to public records as required by section 149.43 of the Revised Code. The training shall provide elected officials with guidance in developing and updating their offices' policies as required under section 149.43 of the Revised Code. An elected official's successful completion every two years of the training requirements established by the attorney general under this section shall satisfy the biennial education requirements imposed on elected officials under division (F) of section 149.43 of the Revised Code.

(B) The attorney general may charge a reasonable fee for the actual and necessary expenses associated with the training programs and seminars. The attorney general may allow the attendance of any other interested persons to any of the training programs or seminars that the attorney general conducts under this section, provided that the persons pay a registration fee to the attorney general before attending the training program or seminar.

(C) The attorney general may provide any other appropriate training or educational programs about Ohio's "Sunshine Laws," sections 121.22 and 149.43 of the Revised Code, as may be developed and offered by the attorney general or by the attorney general in collaboration with one or more other state agencies, political subdivisions, or other public or private entities.

(D) The auditor of state, in the course of an annual or biennial audit of a public office pursuant to Chapter 117. of the Revised Code, shall audit the public office for compliance with this section and division (F) of section 149.43 of the Revised Code.

Sec. 149.011.  As used in this chapter:

(A) "Public office" includes any state agency, public institution, political subdivision, or other organized body, office, agency, institution, or entity established by the laws of this state for the exercise of any function of government.

(B) "State agency" includes every department, bureau, board, commission, office, or other organized body established by the constitution and laws of this state for the exercise of any function of state government, including any state-supported institution of higher education, the general assembly, any legislative agency, any court or judicial agency, or any political subdivision or agency of a political subdivision.

(C) "Public money" includes all money received or collected by or due a public official, whether in accordance with or under authority of any law, ordinance, resolution, or order, under color of office, or otherwise. It also includes any money collected by any individual on behalf of a public office or as a purported representative or agent of the public office.

(D) "Public official" includes all officers, employees, or duly authorized representatives or agents of a public office.

(E) "Color of office" includes any act purported or alleged to be done under any law, ordinance, resolution, order, or other pretension to official right, power, or authority.

(F) "Archive" includes any public record that is transferred to the state archives or other designated archival institutions because of the historical information contained on it.

(G) "Records" includes any document, device, or item, regardless of physical form or characteristic, including an electronic record as defined in section 1306.01 of the Revised Code, created or received by or coming under the jurisdiction of any public office of the state or its political subdivisions, which serves to document the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the office. "Records" also includes any document, device, or item, regardless of physical form or characteristic, created or received by or coming under the jurisdiction of any public office of the state or its political subdivisions which documents the depletion, expenditure, or depreciation of the resources of a public office even if unauthorized by that office.

Sec. 149.43.  (A) As used in this section:

(1) "Public record" means records kept by any public office, including, but not limited to, state, county, city, village, township, and school district units, and records pertaining to the delivery of educational services by an alternative school in Ohio this state kept by a the nonprofit or for profit entity operating such the alternative school pursuant to section 3313.533 of the Revised Code. "Public record" does not mean any of the following:

(a) Medical records;

(b) Records pertaining to probation and parole proceedings or to proceedings related to the imposition of community control sanctions and post-release control sanctions;

(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 3111.69 of the Revised Code, the office 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 job and family services pursuant to section 3121.894 of the Revised Code;

(p) Peace officer, firefighter, or EMT 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 provided to, statements made by review board members during meetings of, and all work products of a child fatality review board acting under sections 307.621 to 307.629 of the Revised Code, other than the report prepared pursuant to section 307.626 of the Revised Code;

(t) Records provided to and statements made by the executive director of a public children services agency or a prosecuting attorney acting pursuant to section 5153.171 of the Revised Code other than the information released under that section;

(u) Test materials, examinations, or evaluation tools used in an examination for licensure as a nursing home administrator that the board of examiners of nursing home administrators administers under section 4751.04 of the Revised Code or contracts under that section with a private or government entity to administer;

(v) Records the release of which is prohibited by state or federal law;

(w) Proprietary information of or relating to any person that is submitted to or compiled by the Ohio venture capital authority created under section 150.01 of the Revised Code;

(x) Information reported and evaluations conducted pursuant to section 3701.072 of the Revised Code.

(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, firefighter, or EMT residential and familial information" means either of the following:

(a) Any information maintained in a personnel record of a peace officer, firefighter, or EMT that discloses any of the following:

(i) The address of the actual personal residence of a peace officer, firefighter, or EMT, except for the state or political subdivision in which the peace officer, firefighter, or EMT resides;

(ii) Information compiled from referral to or participation in an employee assistance program;

(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, firefighter, or EMT;

(iv) The name of any beneficiary of employment benefits, including, but not limited to, life insurance benefits, provided to a peace officer, firefighter, or EMT by the peace officer's, firefighter's, or EMT's employer;

(v) The identity and amount of any charitable or employment benefit deduction made by the peace officer's, firefighter's, or EMT's employer from the peace officer's, firefighter's, or EMT's compensation unless the amount of the deduction is required by state or federal law;

(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, firefighter, or EMT.

(b) Any record that identifies a person's occupation as a peace officer, firefighter, or EMT 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)(9) of this section, "peace officer" has the same meaning as in section 109.71 of the Revised Code 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.

As used in divisions (A)(7) and (B)(5)(9) of this section, "firefighter" means any regular, paid or volunteer, member of a lawfully constituted fire department of a municipal corporation, township, fire district, or village.

As used in divisions (A)(7) and (B)(5)(9) of this section, "EMT" means EMTs-basic, EMTs-I, and paramedics that provide emergency medical services for a public emergency medical service organization. "Emergency medical service organization," "EMT-basic," "EMT-I," and "paramedic" have the same meanings as in section 4765.01 of the Revised Code.

(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.

(9) "Community control sanction" has the same meaning as in section 2929.01 of the Revised Code.

(10) "Post-release control sanction" has the same meaning as in section 2967.01 of the Revised Code.

(11) "Judicial records or other constitutionally protected records" include all records presumed to be open for public inspection or copying under the common law, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, or Sections 11 and 16 of Article I, Ohio Constitution, including all records kept by or on behalf of a court acting in its adjudicative capacity or otherwise exercising judicial power as conferred by or derived from Article IV of the Ohio Constitution.

(12) "Redaction" means obscuring or deleting any information that is exempt from the duty to permit public inspection or copying from an item that otherwise meets the definition of a "record" in section 149.011 of the Revised Code.

(B)(1) Subject Upon request and subject to division (B)(4)(8) of this section, all public records responsive to the request 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)(8) 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. If a public record contains information that is exempt from the duty to permit public inspection or copying, the public office shall make available all of the information within the public record that is not exempt. When making that information available for public inspection or copying, the public office shall notify the requester of any redaction or make the redaction plainly visible. A redaction shall be deemed a denial of a request to inspect or copy the redacted information.

(2) To facilitate broader access to public records, a public office shall organize and maintain public records in a manner that they can be made available for inspection or copying in accordance with division (B) of this section. A public office also shall have available a copy of its current records retention schedule at a location readily available to the public. If a requester makes an ambiguous request or has difficulty in making a request for copies or inspection of public records under this section such that the public office cannot reasonably identify what public records are being requested, the public office may deny the request, but shall provide the requester with an opportunity to revise the request by informing the requester of the manner in which records are maintained by the public office and accessed in the ordinary course of the public office's duties.

(3) If a request is ultimately denied, in part or in whole, the public office shall provide the requester with an explanation, including legal authority, setting forth why the request was denied. If the initial request was provided in writing, the explanation also shall be provided to the requester in writing. The explanation shall not preclude the public office from relying upon additional reasons or legal authority in defending an action commenced under division (C) of this section.

(4) Unless specifically required by state or federal law or in accordance with division (B) of this section, no public office may limit or condition the availability of public records by requiring disclosure of the requester's identity or the intended use of the requested public record. Any such requirement constitutes a denial of the request.

(5) A public office or person responsible for public records may ask a requester to make the request in writing, may ask for the requester's identity, and may inquire about the intended use of the information requested, but only after disclosing to the requester that a written request is not mandatory and that the requester may decline to reveal the requester's identity or the intended use, and only when a written request or disclosure of the identity or intended use would benefit the requester by enhancing the ability of the public office or person responsible for public records to identify, locate, or deliver the public records sought by the requester.

(2)(6) 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)(7) 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)(8) 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)(9) Upon written request made and signed by a journalist on or after 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, firefighter, or EMT shall disclose to the journalist the address of the actual personal residence of the peace officer, firefighter, or EMT and, if the peace officer's, firefighter's, or EMT's spouse, former spouse, or child is employed by a public office, the name and address of the employer of the peace officer's, firefighter's, or EMT'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 this 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)(1) 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 any other failure of a public office or the person responsible for the public record to make a copy available to the person allegedly aggrieved to comply with an obligation 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 court costs and reasonable attorney's fees to the person that instituted the mandamus action, and, if applicable, that includes an order fixing statutory damages under division (C)(2) of this section, an order awarding a punitive civil forfeiture under division (C)(3) of this section, or both of those orders. 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.

(2) If a person makes a written request to inspect or copy any public record in a manner that fairly describes the public record or class of public records requested, and the person does not request receipt of copies by mail, the person shall be entitled to recover the amount of statutory damages set forth in this division if a court determines all of the following:

(a) The person filed a mandamus action authorized by this section to compel compliance more than ten business days after transmitting the request by hand delivery or certified mail to the public office or person responsible for the requested public records, or the person filed the mandamus action after the expiration of any additional period of time for compliance consented to by that person.

(b) The request was not fulfilled before the date on which the mandamus action was filed.

(c) The public office or person responsible for the requested public records was reasonably capable of fulfilling the request before the person filed the mandamus action.

The amount of statutory damages shall be fixed at two hundred fifty dollars for each business day during which the public office or person responsible for the requested public records failed to make one or more requested public records available, beginning with the first day on which this division authorizes the requester to file a mandamus action to recover statutory damages, up to a maximum of five thousand dollars. The statutory damages shall not be construed as penalties, but as compensation for injury arising from lost use of the requested information; the existence of this injury shall be conclusively presumed. The award of statutory damages shall be in addition to all other remedies authorized by this section.

(3) The court shall determine whether an egregious violation of this section has occurred. If the court finds an egregious violation, the court, in its discretion, may award a punitive civil forfeiture of up to one thousand dollars per day for any delay in providing access to the requested public records. An egregious violation shall be found to have occurred upon a showing by the relator that the public office acted in bad faith, with malicious purpose, or in a wanton manner to cause a delay or denial of a public records request.

(4) The court shall determine and award to the relator all court costs and, subject to reduction as described in this division, reasonable attorney's fees. Court costs and reasonable attorney's fees awarded under this section shall be construed as remedial and not punitive. Reasonable attorney's fees shall include reasonable fees incurred to produce proof of the reasonableness and amount of the fees and to otherwise litigate entitlement to the fees. The court may reduce or deny an award of attorney's fees to the relator only if the court determines that, based on the ordinary application of statutory and case law as it existed when the public office or person responsible for public records denied the relator's request to inspect or obtain a copy of the contested public record or otherwise comply with a duty imposed by this section, the public office or person responsible for public records had substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits of its denial.

(D) Chapter 1347. of the Revised Code does not limit the provisions of this section.

(E) No provision of this section or any provision of law creating an exception to this section shall be construed to limit or abrogate the public's qualified right under the common law, the Constitution of Ohio, and the Constitution of the United States to inspect or copy judicial records or other constitutionally protected records, or to limit or abrogate the availability of extraordinary relief, including a writ of mandamus issued pursuant to division (C) of this section to compel a court or other public office to permit public inspection and copying of a judicial record or other constitutionally protected record.

(F) To ensure that all employees of public offices are appropriately educated about a public office's obligations under division (B) of this section, all state and local elected public officials shall attend training approved by the attorney general as provided in section 109.43 of the Revised Code at least once every two years. In addition, all public offices shall adopt a public records policy in compliance with this section for responding to public records requests. The public records policy shall be distributed to all employees of the public office. The public office shall require all employees to acknowledge receipt of the copy of the public records policy. Except as otherwise provided in this section, the policy may not limit the number of public records that the public office will make available to a single person, may not limit the number of public records that it will make available during a fixed period of time, and may not establish a fixed period of time before it will respond to a request for inspection or copying of public records, unless that period is less than eight hours.

(E)(G)(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)(G)(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)(G)(1) and (2) of this section, "commercial surveys, marketing, solicitation, or resale for commercial purposes" 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 sections 149.011 and 149.43 of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.