Public Records

You may view the records you have requested at all reasonable times during the regular business hours of this office. If you wish to view the public records of our office, we will promptly make them available to you. If you wish to receive copies of records, we will provide them within a reasonable period of time. “Prompt” and “reasonable” take into account the volume of records requested; the proximity of the location where records are stored; and the necessity for any legal review of the records requested.

Once we have received your request, we will provide our response or acknowledge your request and provide you with: an estimate of when you should expect our response, an estimated cost if copies have been requested, and the items (if any) that we expect may be exempt from disclosure. If at any time prior to completing our response, we believe our response will take longer than initially estimated (because of the volume of records requested, the proximity of location where the records are stored, or the complexity of the legal review); we will inform you of this change.

It is within your rights not to:

• Disclose your identity to the City of Shelby when your request records (you will be given a “public records request number” which we will use to track our communications with you and our response to your request;
• Provide our office with a written request; and
• Provide a reason why you have requested these records.

If any portion of your request for records must be denied because the records are exempt from disclosure under the law, we will inform you which records you have requested are not public by clearly marking the portion “redacted” or we will explain which portions of the record(s) have been redacted. In addition, we will provide you with the legal authority upon which we have relied.

Please note that if we have denied your request because it is overbroad, ambiguous, or doesn’t reasonably identify our records, we will provide you with information about how our records are maintained and if you wish, you may revise your request for records.

A fee for copies of public records may be charged which covers the direct costs of duplication incurred by the City of Shelby; currently this fee is $.05 per page and $1.00 per CD-ROM. In addition, the actual cost of postage or other delivery may be charged. We may require payment of these fees prior to processing your request.

Feel free to ask our Law Director or Director of Public Record any questions you may have about public records.

City of Shelby, Public Records Policy, Updated on 12/15/2022