University of Missouri System

Collected Rules and Regulations

Administration

Chapter 10: Board of Curators

10.061 Public Records

Bd. Min. 9-11-87; Bd.Min. 7-13-00.

1. Public Records -- All records of the Board of Curators and all Committees which are appointed by and report to the Board of Curators are public records and are open to, and may be inspected and copied by, any person, unless they are closed records pursuant to Paragraph B.
    
2. Closed Records -- Closed meetings and closed records authorized when, exceptions.-- Except to the extent disclosure is otherwise required by law, a public governmental body is authorized to close meetings, records and votes, to the extent they relate to the following:
   1. Legal actions, causes of action or litigation involving a public governmental body and any confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental body or its representatives and its attorneys. However, any minutes, vote or settlement agreement relating to legal actions, causes of action or litigation involving a public governmental body or any agent or entity representing its interests or acting on its behalf or with its authority, including any insurance company acting on behalf of a public government body as its insured, shall be made public upon final disposition of the matter voted upon or upon the signing by the parties of the settlement agreement, unless, prior to final disposition, the settlement agreement is ordered closed by a court after a written finding that the adverse impact to a plaintiff or plaintiffs to the action clearly outweighs the public policy considerations of section 610.011, however, the amount of any moneys paid by, or on behalf of, the public governmental body shall be disclosed; provided, however, in matters involving the exercise of the power of eminent domain, the vote shall be announced or become public immediately following the action on the motion to authorize institution of such legal action. Legal work product shall be considered a closed record ;
   2. Leasing, purchase or sale of real estate where public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal consideration therefor. However, any minutes, vote or public record approving a contract relating to the leasing, purchase or sale of real estate by a public governmental body shall be make public within seventy-two hours after execution of the lease, purchase or sale of the real estate.
   3. Hiring, firing, disciplining or promoting of particular employees by a public governmental body when personal information about the employee is discussed or recorded. However, any vote on a final decision, when taken by a public governmental body, to hire, fire, promote or discipline an employee must be made available with a record of how each member voted to the public within seventy-two hours of the close of the meeting where such action occurs; provided, however, that any employee so affected shall be entitled to prompt notice of such decision during the seventy-two hour period before such decision is made available to the public. As used in this subdivision, the term "personal information" means information relating to the performance or merit of individual employees;
   4. The state militia or national guard or any part thereof;
   5. Non-judicial mental or physical health proceedings involving identifiable persons, including medical, psychiatric, psychological, or alcoholism or drug dependency diagnosis or treatment.
   6. Scholastic probation, expulsion, or graduation of identifiable individuals, including records of individual test or examination scores; however, personally identifiable student records maintained by public educational institutions shall be open for inspection by the parents, guardian or other custodian of students under the age of eighteen years and by the parents, guardian or other custodian and the student if the student is over the age of eighteen years;
   7. Testing and examination materials, before the test or examination is given or, if it is to be given again, before so given again.
   8. Welfare cases of identifiable individuals;
   9. Preparation, including any discussions or work product, on behalf of a public governmental body or its representatives for negotiations with employee groups.
   10. Software codes for electronic data processing and documentation thereof.
   11. Specifications for competitive bidding, until either the specifications are officially approved by the public governmental body or the specifications are published for bid.
   12. Sealed bids and related documents, until the bids are opened; and sealed proposals and related documents or any document related to a negotiated contract until a contract is executed, or all proposals are rejected.
   13. Individually identifiable personnel records, performance ratings or records pertaining to employees or applicants for employment, except that this exemption shall not apply to the names, positions, salaries and lengths of service of officers and employees of public agencies once they are employed as such.
   14. Records which are protected from disclosure by law.
   15. Meetings and public records relating to scientific and technological innovations in which the owner has a proprietary interest.
   16. Records relating to municipal hot lines established for the reporting of abuse and wrongdoing;
   17. Confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental body and its auditor, including all auditor work product; and
   18. In preparation for and implementation of electric restructuring, a municipal electric utility may close that portion of its financial records and business plans which contains information regarding the name of the suppliers of services to said utility and the cost of such services, and the records and business plans concerning the municipal electric utility's future marketing and service expansion areas. However, this exception shall not be construed to limit access to other records of a municipal electric utility, including but not limited to the names and addresses of its business and residential customers, its financial reports, including but not limited to its budget, annual reports and other financial statements prepared in the course of business, and other records maintained in the course of doing business as a municipal electric utility. This exemption shall become null and void if the state of Missouri fails to implement by December 31, 2001, electric restructuring through the adoption of statutes permitting the same in this state.

NOTE: Statute 610.022 (Closed meetings, procedure and limitation - public records presumed open unless exempt) is not included in the CR&R.

(610.023)

Records of governmental bodies to be in care of custodian, duties - records may be copied but not removed, exception, procedure - denial of access, procedure.

1. Each public governmental body is to appoint a custodian who is to be responsible for the maintenance of that body's records. The identity and location of a public governmental body's custodian is to be made available upon request.
2. Each public governmental body shall make available for inspection and copying by the public of that body's public records. No person shall remove original public records from the office of a public governmental body or its custodian without written permission of the designated custodian. No public governmental body shall, after August 28,1998, grant to any person or entity, whether by contract, license or otherwise, the exclusive right to access and disseminate any public record unless the granting of such right is necessary to facilitate coordination with, or uniformity among, industry regulators having similar authority.
3. Each request for access to a public record shall be acted upon as soon as possible, but in no event later than the end of the third business day following the date the request is received by the custodian of the records. If access to the public record is not granted immediately, the custodian shall give a detailed explanation of the cause for further delay and the place and earliest time and date that the record will be available for inspection. This period for document production may exceed three days for reasonable cause.
4. If a request for access is denied, the custodian shall provide, upon request, a written statement of the grounds for such denial. Such statement shall cite the specific provision of law under which access is denied and shall be furnished to the requester no later than the end of the third business day following the date that the request for the statement is received.

(610.026)

Fees for copying public records, limitations-fee money remitted to whom-tax, license or fee as used in Missouri Constitution article X section 22 not to include copying fees. Except as otherwise provided by law, each public governmental body shall provide access to and, upon request, furnish copies of public records subject to the following:

1. Fees for copying public records shall not exceed the actual cost of document search and duplication. Upon request, the governmental body shall certify in writing that the actual cost of document search and duplication is fair, reasonable and does not exceed the actual cost incurred by the public governmental body. Documents may be furnished without charge or at a reduced charge when the public governmental body determines that waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the public governmental body and is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.
2. Fees for providing access to public records maintained on computer facilities, recording tapes or discs, video tapes or films, pictures, slides, graphics, illustrations or similar video or visual items or devices, shall include only the cost of copies and staff time required for making copies and programming, if necessary, and the disk or tape used for the duplication.
3. Payment of such copying fees may be requested prior to the making of copies.
4. Except as otherwise provided by law, each public governmental body of the state shall remit all moneys received by or for it from fees charged pursuant to this section to the director of revenue for deposit to the general revenue fund of the state.
5. Except as otherwise provided by law, each public governmental body of a political subdivision of the state shall remit all moneys received by it or for it from fees charged pursuant to sections 610.010 to 610.028 to the appropriate fiscal officer of such political subdivision for deposit to the governmental body's account.
6. The term "tax, license or fees" as used in section 22 of article X of the Constitution of the state of Missouri does not include copying charges and related fees that do not exceed the level necessary to pay or to continue to pay the costs for providing a service, program, or activity which was in existence on November 4, 1980, or which was approved by a vote of the people subsequent to November 4, 1980.

Note: 610.027, 610.029, 610.030 and 610.035 are not in the CR&R