Agenda - Council - 01/08/1980 - Laserfiche WebLink

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PART I SUMMARY OF CITY'S RESPONSIBILITIES Every city in Minnesota is required under the provisions of Minnesota Statutes, Sections 15.1611 to 15.1698 to do several things to comply with the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. The first thing every city must do is to appoint a Responsible Authority and assign that person the duties of administration of this act. Part II of this memorandum contains a resolution appointing a Responsible Authority and assigning duties to that person. Notes concerning the various portions of that resolution are inserted within the text of the iesolution and should be deleted when the resolution is retyped for adoption by the city council. 'The Responsible Authority is required, after appointment, to prepare a public document con- taining procedures which the Responsible Author- ity 'will use to administer 'the Minnesota Govern- ment' Practices Act. Part III of this memorandum contains a model public document which the Res- ponsible Authority should consider adopting. It sh6uld be pointed out here that because the legis- lature has historically amended the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act every session, and has made modifications in the types of records, files, and processes classified by state law, this public document will necessarily need to be re- viewed and possibly amended after each legislative session. The League will attempt to notify each member city of the appropriate changes which should be made in this public document. As will be noted in this public docur;nent, very few types of government data are cla.ssified by state statute. All data which is classified by a state statute and which generally applies to the cities of Minnesota is specifically listed in this public docu- ment. This means that unless a city can find a federal law or state statute classifying a particular piece of information, it is public and must be re- leased to the public. Cities may request the Com- missioner of Administration to temporarily classi- fy data which the city feels should not be released to the public. A model Application for Temporary Classification for data on individuals and data not on individuals is available from the League of Minnesota Cities. Also enclosed as an Appendix to tee informa- tion contained in this memorandum is a current copy of the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. The model resolution appointing a Responsible Authority and assigning duties, and the model public document containing procedures adopted by the Responsible Authority to administe'r the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, closely follow the provisions of this act. This resolution and public document should not be changed in any respect without consulting the city attorney because of the potential liability to a city for re- fusing to release information which is public and, on the other hand, releasing information which lawfully is classified private or confidential or non-public. The Responsible Authority must become familiar with the contents of the Minnesota Govetn- .ment Data Practices Act. The city council should be made expressly aware of the penalties and liabilities for failure to property administer the act. These penalities and liabilities are found in the act inM.S. 15.166 and 15.167. -1-