Fees And Charges For Producing Copies Of Public Records

(1) Records custodians or the PRRC shall provide requestors with an itemized estimate of the fees and charges prior to producing copies of records. After the copies have been made, the records custodian or PRRC shall itemize the fees and charges and send an invoice to the requestor. Pre-payment of the copy costs shall be required before producing copies of the requested records. (2) The PRRC or a records custodian may waive payment of copy fees and labor charges under any of the following circumstances: (a) The applicable fees and charges do not exceed $5.00; (b) The records are provided to federal, state, or local governmental agencies or officials; (c) The records are provided to a person or entity that will use the records to perform work for or on behalf of TDOT; or (d) The records pertain to the acquisition of real property from a person or entity and are provided to that person or entity. (3) Fees for making copies are as follows: Record page size Fee (black and white) Fee (color) 8 ½” x 11” or 8 ½” x 14” (letter or legal size) $0.15 per page $0.50 per page 11” x 17” or 12” x 18” $1.00 per page $1.50 per page 24” x 36” $2.00 per page $4.00 per page > 24” x 36” $.75/sq. ft. $1.50/sq. ft. (4) In addition to the copy fees described in paragraph (3) above, labor charges for the time, in hours, to produce copies of records shall be imposed whenever the time exceeds one (1) hour. Labor charges shall be calculated by multiplying the base hourly wage rate of each employee by the time each employee spends in identifying, locating, and copying the records, minus the first hour of the most highly paid employee. (5) If the copies of the requested records are delivered by mail, the costs of delivery, including postage, shall be included in the copy charge. (6) At TDOT’s discretion, an outside copying vendor may be used to make copies of the requested records. If so, an employee of TDOT shall transport the records to and from the vendor and maintain custody of the records at all times. The requestor shall pay the actual costs assessed by the vendor and any applicable employee labor charges as provided in paragraph (4) above. INSPECTION AND COPYING OF PUBLIC RECORDS CHAPTER 1680-04-02 (7) If the requested records are in the custody of, and produced by, a TDOT contractor or consultant, the requestor shall pay the total labor and copying costs billed to TDOT by the contractor or consultant. (8) If TDOT maintains the requested public record(s) in an electronic format, copies of the record(s) may be provided to the requestor in an electronic format, as follows: (a) The record(s) may be downloaded to a flash drive or compact disc (or equivalent) provided by TDOT. The requestor shall be charged for the flash drive or compact disc (or equivalent) at the current cost to TDOT. Downloading to a flash drive or compact disc (or equivalent) from outside TDOT will not be allowed. (b) If the requested record exists in an electronic format that may be transmitted by email, there will no copy fee for transmitting the record. (c) If the time required to identify, locate, and download or transmit the requested electronic records exceeds one hour, the production of the copies shall be subject to the labor charge described in paragraph (4) above. (9) TDOT may aggregate record requests in accordance with the Frequent and Multiple Request Policy promulgated by the Office of Open Records Counsel when more than four (4) requests are received within a calendar month either from a single individual or a group of individuals deemed working in concert. The PRRC is responsible for making the determination that a group of individuals are working in concert. The PRRC or the records custodian must inform the individual that they have been deemed to be working in concert and that they have the right to appeal the decision to the OORC. (10) Payment shall be remitted by check or money order made payable to the State of Tennessee Department of Transportation.