UNION COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
NEW BERLIN BOROUGH
OPEN RECORDS POLICY
To comply with the Pennsylvania Open Records Act in regards to record retention practices and responses to requests for public records.
Definition:
“Public record” means a record, as defined in the Pennsylvania Open Records Act.
Policy/Procedure:
Requests
1. Public records will be available for inspection and copying at the Borough of New Berlin during normal business hours, Monday through Friday, upon request, with the exception of holidays.
Requests shall be directed to the Open Records Officer at the
Borough of New Berlin
Attn: Rebecca Witmer, Open Records Officer
700 Water Street
PO Box 330
New Berlin, PA 17855-0330
Written requests shall be on the form provided by clicking this link FORM – STANDARD RIGHT TO KNOW and shall include the date of the request, the name and address of the requester, and a clear description of the records sought.
Fees
Black and white paper copies will be $0.25 per page, per side. Color copies will be $.0.50 per page, per side. If mailing is requested, the cost of postage will be charged. Faxed copies will be available at the cost of $0.50 per page.
If “True and Correct Certification” is requested, an additional charge of $5.00 will be added.
The Borough will require prepayment of all fees.
Response
The Borough will make a good faith effort to provide the requested public records as promptly as feasible. Borough employees shall cooperate with those requesting to review and/or duplicate original documents while taking reasonable measures to protect documents from the possibility of theft and/or modification.
The Open Records Officer shall review all written requests for access to public records. As soon as possible, but no later than five business days after receiving a written request to access public records, the Open Records Officer shall respond to all such requests in a manner consistent with the Open Records Law.
Appeals Process
If you submit a Right-to-Know request to a state or local agency in Pennsylvania and your request is denied, you can file an appeal with the Office of Open Records. There is no fee, and you do not need an attorney.
All appeals must be made in writing and must be submitted to the Office of Open Records within 15 business days from the mailing date of the Agency’s response or the date that the request was deemed denied. If that timeframe expires before you provide the required information to the OOR, you lose your right to appeal and may need to file a new RTK request with the Agency.
The OOR strongly recommends that appeals be submitted through the online version of the official OOR Appeal Form.
If that’s not possible, the OOR also accepts appeals via email, fax, postal mail, and in-person submission.
Appeals submitted via email should be attached as a Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or PDF file.
Email Attachment Formats: Appeals filed via email may include PDF, Microsoft Word (doc, docx, or rtf), Microsoft Excel (xls or xlsx), and image file (jpg, png, gif, or tiff) attachments. If an appeal to be filed via email includes an attachment of any other format, call the Office of Open Records (717-346-9903) before sending it. Any other formats may be rejected by Commonwealth servers.
Email Attachment File size: If an appeal to be filed via e-mail includes an attachment exceeding 4MB, call the Office of Open Records (717-346-9903) before sending it. Attachments exceeding 4MB may be rejected by Commonwealth servers.
Appeals may also be submitted via fax (717-425-5343) or postal mail:
Office of Open Records
333 Market Street, 16th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17101-2234
In-person submissions are accepted at the Office of Open Records, 333 Market Street, 16th Floor, Harrisburg, PA, during normal business hours.
The deadline for an appeal submitted electronically (email or fax) is 11:59:59 p.m. on the 15th business day from the mailing date of the Agency’s response or the date that the request was deemed denied. For in-person submissions and submissions via postal mail, the deadline is 5:00 p.m. on the 15th business day.