An Act To Implement the Recommendations of the Right To Know Advisory Committee Concerning Receipt of a Request for Public Records
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 1 MRSA §408-A, sub-§3, as amended by PL 2013, c. 350, §1, is further amended to read:
3. Acknowledgment; clarification; time estimate; cost estimate. The agency or official having custody or control of a public record shall acknowledge receipt of a request made according to this section within 5 working days of receiving the request and may request clarification concerning which public record or public records are being requested. Within a reasonable time of receiving the request, the agency or official shall provide a good faith, nonbinding estimate of the time within which the agency or official will comply with the request, as well as a cost estimate as provided in subsection 9. The agency or official shall make a good faith effort to fully respond to the request within the estimated time. For purposes of this subsection, the date a request is received is the date a sufficient description of the public record is received by the agency or official at the office responsible for maintaining the public record. An agency or official that receives a request for a public record that is not maintained by the office shall forward the request to the office of the agency or official that maintains the record, without willful delay.
summary
This bill amends the Freedom of Access Act to clarify that the date of receipt of a request to copy or inspect a public record is the date a sufficient description of the public record is received by the agency or official at the office responsible for maintaining the public record. An agency or official that receives a request for a public record that is not maintained by that office must forward the request to the appropriate office without willful delay.