Bill > SB1029

This bill modifies the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to make several key changes to how public bodies handle records requests. The bill limits the fees that public bodies can charge for staff time to produce records, capping these charges at the median hourly rate of pay for employees or the actual hourly rate of the employee performing the work, whichever is less. If no employee can fulfill the request at or below the median rate, the public body can petition a court for relief from this fee cap. The bill also amends the procedures for how public bodies respond to records requests, allowing them to petition either a general district or circuit court for additional time to respond to complex requests, with these petitions to be given priority on the court's docket and with the response time paused while the petition is pending. Additionally, the bill makes technical amendments to the FOIA, including moving provisions about charges for record production into a separate section of the law and updating the required statement on charges that must be posted on public bodies' websites. These changes aim to balance the public's right to access government records with the administrative challenges faced by public bodies in responding to complex or voluminous records requests.