SB1029: FOIA; procedure for responding to requests, charges, posting of notice of rights & responsibilities.

Legislative Summary

Virginia Freedom of Information Act; procedure for responding to requests; charges; posting of notice of rights and responsibilities. Limits the fees charged for producing public records to the median hourly rate of pay of employees of the public body or the actual hourly rate of pay of the person performing the work, whichever is less, and provides that a public body may petition a court for relief from this fee limit if there is no one who can process the request at the median hourly rate of pay or less. The bill makes corresponding amendments to the required statement on charges in the notice of rights and responsibilities that must be posted on a public body's website. The bill also amends existing law providing that a public body may petition a court for additional time to respond to a request for public records to allow such petitions to be heard in either general district or circuit court, to give such petitions priority on the court's docket, and to toll the response time while such a petition is pending before a court. The bill makes technical amendments, including moving provisions regarding charges for the production of public records into a separate section of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.