Every appointed and elected body in Peachtree City is taking time in the next week to address an issue of concern to governments across the state — changes in the state Open Records and Open Meetings laws.

Amendments passed by the General Assembly this year take effect July 1. The Open Meetings law was amended by House Bill 278, and the Open Records law was amended by House Bills 279 and 250, as well as Senate Bill 20.

Not providing access to appropriate records will be a misdemeanor under the new statutes, with a possible fine of $100.

Proposed changes in policy for the city were scheduled to be addressed briefly at Thursday's City Council meeting. These items will be covered in more detail Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the council chambers, with the members of every board, commission or authority in the city having been encouraged to attend.

The following changes in the laws are taken from a letter sent by the firm of Webb, Stuckey & Lindsey, which serves as legal counsel for Peachtree City, to city manager Jim Basinger, to be included as part of the record of Thursday's council meeting.

Changes in the Open Records law now include records received or maintained by a private person, corporation or other private agency when a service is being performed on behalf of a public agency or public office. Those records are now subject to the same disclosure as if they were kept by the public office.

In addition to responding within three business days as to whether records a citizen has requested are subject to access, that citizen must now be given access to inspect and copy the records within that same period. This amendment does not change the status of records not subject to inspection under the law.

Another change pertains to technology. Records kept by computer must be made available by electronic means, including the Internet, whenever possible, subject to reasonable security restrictions preventing access to non-available records.

When providing an estimate of costs incurred in retrieving documents, the law does not permit an agency to add any fees for electronic access except what is directly attributed to providing the records.

Release of personnel records has been slightly amended to prevent disclosure of an employee's Social Security number and insurance or medical information.

When access to records is denied, the specific source of authority for such action must be provided to the citizen, including code section, subsection and paragraph.

Requests for motor vehicle accident reports are now released only upon “the submission of a written statement of need by the requesting party,” according to the Georgia code. Those parties include witnesses, insurance companies, law enforcement officials and members of the news media, among others.

As for open meetings, the definition of an “agency” has been amended to include any public corporation. The definition of “meeting” now includes any discussion of any public matter along with official business of the agency. “Any public matter” is not specifically defined, according to city attorneys.

An agency conducting a public meeting must now release the agenda to the public in advance of the meeting, as soon as reasonably possible. A summary of action taken is to be written and made available to the public within two business days of the meeting.

If any meeting is closed to the public, the person presiding over the meeting must file a notarized affidavit with the minutes, stating under oath that the subject matter covered is legally exempt from open meeting requirements.

City attorneys made several recommendations for how the city should address these changes.

It was suggested that a policy for internal handling of open records be established, and requests be handled as quickly as possible. Only the city attorney should make the final determination that certain records are exempt from disclosure.

Separate personnel files should be kept on all employees, it was recommended, so that information now exempt is kept apart from what must be disclosed.

Any form filled out by citizens that will be a public record should be noted as such by the city, attorneys recommended.

Suggestions for revising printed agendas were presented as a way to help summaries be published more easily.

It was recommended that the mayor, chairman, city manager and assistant city manager be given the authority to amend the agenda up to 24 hours before a meeting, and notice of this policy be printed on each agenda. Agenda items probably should be added at the last minute only when necessary, according to legal counsel.

It was also recommended that rules be developed concerning how public officials meet with constituents, as well as how and when city matters are discussed, so that the more strict laws are not violated. Rules for committee and subcommittee meetings also were suggested.

City attorneys maintained that no meeting should be closed without the advice of legal counsel, and any reason to close a meeting should be entered into the minutes before the meeting is closed, with every member of the affected body signing the affidavit mandated earlier.

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