Government Records Amendments

Requires governmental entities to develop and provide employees with a one-page summary of government records requirements annually, and entities with ordinances must also provide supplements describing differences from the state summary.

Updates the State Records Committee membership requirements and procedures for handling appeals of record access denials.

Changes response deadlines for record requests from 10 business days to 15 business days for standard requests, with expedited responses required within 5 business days when the requester demonstrates public benefit.

Updates fee structures for record requests, including specific provisions for voter registration records and requirements for prepayment when fees exceed $50.

Adds new definitions for 'Hash Code' and updates definitions for 'Protected individual' to include victims of domestic violence, dating violence, law enforcement officers, and other protected categories.

Makes it a crime to destroy records with intent to avoid disclosure in response to a pending record request.

Includes technical and conforming changes to align with related legislation and update references to other statutes.

Governmental entities must now develop and provide a one-page summary of government records requirements to employees, and conduct annual reviews of records retention requirements and compliance.

Modified response timelines for public records requests, including expedited response options and new provisions for extraordinary circumstances that allow delays.

Updated definitions for terms like 'Audit', 'Classification', 'Computer program', 'Contractor', 'Governmental entity', 'Initial contact report', 'Media representative', 'Personal identifying information', 'Record', and 'Records officer' to clarify their meanings and scope.

Added criminal penalties for destroying or deleting records with the intent to avoid disclosure in response to a pending records request.

Modified provisions for voter registration records, including expanded privacy protections for protected individuals and new hash code requirements for certain information disclosure.

Modified fee structures for public records requests, including provisions for fee waivers and requirements for prepayment of fees exceeding certain thresholds.

Added specific deadlines for developing and updating records summaries, retention schedules, and notices to protected individuals.

Made technical and conforming changes to align various sections of the Government Records Access and Management Act with each other and with related statutes.

Requires governmental entities to provide employees with a one-page summary of government records requirements annually, and political subdivisions must provide supplements describing any ordinance-specific provisions.

Mandates annual reviews by governmental entities to assess compliance with records retention requirements and update retention schedules as needed.

Updates response time requirements for records requests, including provisions for expedited responses when requests benefit the public rather than the requester.

Requires political subdivisions to adopt ordinances or policies governing public records and file them with state archives within 30 days of effective date.

Expands the definition of 'record' to explicitly include electronic data and computer programs, and clarifies that records are not limited to traditional paper formats.

Adds new definitions for 'Hash Code', 'Protected individual', and clarifies classifications for 'controlled records' and 'initial contact reports'.

Creates a new crime for intentionally destroying or deleting records known to be responsive to a pending records request with the intent to avoid disclosure.

Modifies voter registration record access rules to allow media representatives to obtain specific non-identifying information from protected voter records under certain conditions.

Clarifies that fees for voter registration records must be established by the lieutenant governor with legislative approval, separate from other governmental entity fees.

Makes technical corrections to section numbering and cross-references throughout the Government Records Access and Management Act chapters.