Public Records Policy
City of Kettering – Administrative Policies Personnel Policies & Procedures April 2025
Policy Number 813: Public Records
This policy repeals Public Records Policy dated June 3, 2022.
A. Purpose
This policy has been developed to ensure that the City of Kettering is in compliance with the requirements of the State of Ohio Revised Code (R. C. 149.43 and related sections), as it pertains to Public Records. This policy explains the general requirements of the Public Records Act and establishes procedures to be followed for charging for copies of public records, handling public records requests, and using electronic records and social media.
1. Definitions
a. All records kept by the City of Kettering are public records unless they are exempt from disclosure under Ohio law. Please see R.C. 149.43 and related sections for a full list of exempted records.
b. A record is defined to include the following: A document in any format – paper, microfilm, audio/video recordings, and electronic (including, but not limited to, computer files and business e-mail and text messages) – that is created, received by, or comes under the jurisdiction of the City of Kettering that documents the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the City.
c. Excluding video records, the cost for a copy of a public record is defined as the actual cost to produce the copy. This may include, for example, toner, paper, and amortization of the cost of copying equipment. The amount charged may not include labor costs for employee time unless otherwise allowed by law. Costs for video records are addressed below.
2. General Requirements of the Public Records Act
a. These general requirements have been reprinted with permission from the office of the Attorney General of the State of Ohio:
(1) Local Records Commissions are governed by Ohio Revised Code Section 149.39. The City of Kettering Records Commission meets at least once every six months and upon call of the chairman. The City of Kettering Records Commission is comprised of the following:
Chairman: City Manager
Secretary: Records Clerk
Archivist: Administrative Systems Director
Chief Fiscal Officer: Finance Director
Chief Legal Officer: Law Director
Citizen: Appointed by Chairman
(a) The functions of the Commission shall be to provide rules for retention and disposal of records of the municipal corporation and to review applications for one-time records disposal and schedules of records retention and disposition submitted by municipal offices. Records may be disposed of by the Commission pursuant to the procedures outlined in this policy. The Commission may at any time review any schedule it has previously approved, and for good cause shown may revise that schedule.
(b) Every department must designate a single representative as the Departmental Records Officer. The person may be the department head or a capable designee. It should be someone who is familiar with the overall responsibilities of the department and the records it creates and maintains. The Departmental Records Officer will be the contact person for any records-related matters.
(2) Every public office must maintain its records in accordance with approved records retention schedules, and must not transfer or destroy records without first obtaining proper authorization as provided for by statute.
(a) Records in the custody of each agency must be retained in accordance with:
(i) Laws establishing record retention periods for specific classes of records; and with
(ii) Schedules of Records Retention or disposition instructions established by the State Records Administrator for state agencies (see R.C. 121.211) or by the appropriate records commission for local government agencies. See C. 149.38-42.
(b) The City’s current records retention schedules are available at the Kettering Government Center, 3600 Shroyer Road, a location readily available to the public as required by section 149.43(B)(2), Ohio Revised Code.
(c) Records shall not be removed, destroyed, mutilated, transferred, or otherwise damaged or disposed of, in whole or in part, except as provided:
(i) By laws establishing limitations for specific classes of records; or
(ii) Under rules adopted by the State Records Administrator for state agencies (see C. 149.331) or by the appropriate records commission for local government agencies. See R.C. 149.38-.42.
(iii) Prior to disposing of records, the Departmental Records Officer must prepare a Certificate of Records Disposal for items on the Department’s Schedule of Records Retention. Certificates of Records Disposal must be submitted to the Records Clerk before any records are destroyed.
(iv) Records which are NOT included on a Schedule of Records Retention and that are no longer being created by the office must be listed on an Application for One-Time Records Disposal and submitted to the City Records Commission for approval. An approved One-Time form only grants authorization to dispose of the specific records listed on it.
(3) Every public office must promptly prepare and make available for inspection all public records at all reasonable times, during regular business hours. See C. 149.43 (B). See also R.C. 9.01 (where public office keeps information by machine-readable means, such as microfilm, optical disk or electronic or magnetic storage, the public office is required to make “readily available to the public” the equipment necessary to reproduce the information in a readable form). 1989 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 89-042.
(4) Upon request, a person responsible for public records shall make copies of public records available at cost and within a reasonable amount of time. See C. 149.43 (B).
(5) Every public office must organize its filing system so that its records can be made available for inspection within a reasonable amount of time. See C. 149.43 (B).
(6) The head of each public office must cause to be made only such records as are necessary to the adequate and proper documentation of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions of the agency and for the protection of the legal and financial rights of the state and persons directly affected by the agency’s activities. See C. 149.40.
b. Requests for clarification should be made to the Law Director or the Administrative Systems Director.
3. The City of Kettering procedure for charging the public for copies of non-video records is as follows:
a. The policy for requests from the public for copies of loose or stapled papers shall be to assess a charge of $0.05 per page for letter or legal size black and white documents. If an individual wants a large number of copies of a single document, such as 50 copies of a 9-page report for each member of his/her organization, our response should be that we are willing to make one copy of the 9-page report for our standard charge of $0.45 (9 pages @ $.05/page), but it will be up to the individual to reproduce that for other members in the organization. In other words, we should not be in the printing/reproduction business. For letter or legal size color copies the charge shall be $0.10 per page.
b. If an individual wants copies of records on removable digital media, the charge shall be $1.00 per CD/DVD or $4.00 per flash drive.
c. Reasonable prices are to be established for oversized documents (such as zoning maps, etc.) and documents in other formats (microfilm, photographs, film, audio tapes, or video tapes) and charges should be assessed by each department. These prices shall reasonably represent the actual cost to produce the record.
d. Copies of certain documents the City produces of interest to the public shall be available to members of the public for their information. Our policy is to place documents on the City’s web site.
(1) For those individuals who feel the need to own a copy, a purchase price will be made available for sale. This price will reasonably represent the cost to produce the document. In the event all copies produced for sale are sold and an individual wants the City to make a copy for his/her use, the copy charges above will apply.
(2) In addition the City will make an effort to provide copies to the public library when the subject of the document would warrant that kind of exposure. In addition to providing two or three copies to each of Kettering’s branch libraries, a copy will be made available to the downtown branch, so it can be included in the Dayton/Miami Valley Clearing House. This clearing house provides a central depository for current publications that help promote the Miami Valley area as a place to live and do business.
(3) The City may limit the number of records requested by a person that the office will physically deliver by United States mail or by another delivery service to ten per month, unless the person certifies to the City in writing that the person does not intend to use or forward the requested records, or the information contained in them, for commercial purposes.
(4) If the City provides some or all of its public records on a web site that is fully accessible to and searchable by members of the public at all times, other than during acts of God outside the City’s control or maintenance, and that charges no fee to search, access, download, or otherwise receive records provided on the web site, the City may limit to ten per month the number of records requested by a person that the City will deliver in a digital format, unless the requested records are not provided on the web site and unless the person certifies to the City in writing that the person does not intend to use or forward the requested records, or the information contained in them, for commercial purposes.
(5) For purposes of 3 and 4 above, “commercial” does not include reporting or gathering news, reporting or gathering information to assist citizen oversight or understanding of the operations or activities of government, or nonprofit educational research.
e. A requester may be required to pay in advance for costs involved in providing the copy. The requester may choose whether to have the record duplicated upon paper, upon the same medium in which the public record is kept, or upon any other medium on which the office determines that the record can reasonably be duplicated as an integral part of the office’s normal operations.
f. If a requester asks that documents be mailed, he or she may be charged the actual cost of the postage and mailing supplies and advance payment may be required. There is no charge for documents e-mailed to the requester.
g. A key ingredient in making the above policy effective will be the use of judgment on the part of all participants. For example, no charge is to be made to other governmental organizations. It will be the responsibility of each department head to make sure that the appropriate judgment is applied to the administration of this policy.
4. Video Record Preparation Cost Recovery
a. The purpose of this section is to balance the need to recover and pay for the costs associated with providing video records, serve the citizens of Kettering, and provide transparency for police activities.
b. In accordance with R.C. 149.43(B)(1), requesters may be charged the actual cost associated with preparing each video record for inspection or production, not to exceed Seventy-five dollars ($75.00) per hour of each video record produced, nor seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00) total. “Actual cost” means all costs incurred by the state or local law enforcement agency in reviewing, blurring or otherwise obscuring, redacting, uploading, or producing each video record, including but not limited to the storage medium on which the record is produced, staff time, and any other relevant overhead necessary to comply with the request.
c. Within five business days of receipt of a request for a video record, the requester will be provided with the estimated actual cost of producing the video record. Requesters must pay the estimated actual cost before the video record is processed and prepared for inspection or production. Upon receipt of payment in full, the requested video record will be processed and prepared.
d. If, during the course of processing and preparation it is determined that the actual cost exceeds the estimated actual cost, then the requester will be notified in advance that the actual cost may be up to twenty per cent higher than the estimated actual cost. The requester may then be charged the difference in cost on fulfilling the request. However, the requester may not be charged the difference that exceeds twenty per cent of the estimated actual cost.
e. Payment must be made in the form of cash (USD) or check payable to the City of Kettering and delivered to the Finance Department.
f. Criminal defendants should request video records relevant to their case from the appropriate prosecutor’s office through the criminal discovery process under Rule 16 of the Criminal Rules of Procedure.
5. Handling Public Records Requests
a. No specific language is required to make a request for public records. However, the requester must at least identify the records requested with sufficient clarity to allow the office to identify, retrieve, and review the records. If it is not clear what records are being sought, the office must contact the requester for clarification, and should assist the requester in revising the request by informing the requester of the manner in which the office keeps its public records.
b. The requester does not have to put a records request in writing, and does not have to provide his or her identity or the intended use of the requested public record. However, the law does permit the office to ask for a written request, the requester’s identity, and/or the intended use of the information requested, but only:
(1) If a written request or disclosure of identity or intended use would benefit the requester by enhancing the office’s ability to identify, locate, or deliver the public records that have been requested; and
(2) After telling the requester that a written request is not required and that the requester may decline to reveal the requester’s identity or intended use.
c. The Law Department has developed a form to be used for public records requests. A sample of this form is attached to this policy. Please note that the form clearly states that “This is not a legal requirement, and the City will make the records available without such identification…” If the requester refuses to complete the form, the public records shall still be provided to the requester.
d. In processing the request, the office does not have an obligation to create new records or perform new analysis of existing information. An electronic record is deemed to exist so long as a computer is already programmed to produce the record through simple sorting, filtering, or querying. Although not required by law, the office may accommodate the requester by generating new records when it makes sense and is practical under the circumstances.
e. In processing a request for inspection of a public record, an office employee must accompany the requester during inspection to make certain original records are not damaged, taken, or altered.
f. If the requester makes an ambiguous or overly broad request or has difficulty in making a request for public records, the request may be denied, but the denial must provide the requester an opportunity to revise the request by informing the requester of the manner in which records are maintained and accessed by the office.
(1) Any denial of public records requested must include an explanation, including legal authority.
(2) If the initial request was made in writing, the explanation must also be in writing.
g. If portions of a record are public and portions are exempt, the exempt portions may be redacted and the rest released.
(1) When making public records available for public inspection or copying, the office shall notify the requester of any redaction or make the redaction plainly visible.
(2) If there are redactions, each redaction must be accompanied by a supporting explanation, including legal authority.
Electronic Records
a. Records in the form of computer files, voice-mails, e-mail, text messaging, and instant messaging, including those sent and received via a hand-held communications device are to be treated in the same fashion as records in other formats, such as paper or audiotape.
(1) Public record content transmitted to or from private accounts or personal devices is subject to disclosure. All City employees or representatives are required to retain their voice-mails, e-mail records and other electronic records in accordance with applicable records retention schedules.
The City Manager hereby delegates the appropriate responsibility and authority to administer this Policy to the City’s Assistant City Managers and Department Directors.
Approved:
Matthew H. Greeson, City Manager
4/9/2025
Issued:
Jennifer Smith, Director of Human Resource
4/10/2025