Your Right to See Public Data

The Government Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13) presumes that all government

data are public unless a state or federal law says the data are not public. Government data means all
recorded information a government entity has, including paper, email, flash drives, CDs, DVDs,
photographs, etc. The law also says that cities must keep all government data in a way that makes it
easy for you to access public data. You have the right to look at (inspect) all public data that we keep.
You also have the right to get copies of public data. The Data Practices Act allows us to charge for copies
(including staff time to compile data) and we will provide these for your inspection before you may ask
for copies.

How to Request Public Data

You may make your request for public data the City may hold in writing only and only in “hard copy”

format delivered in person or sent to the responsible party via US MAIL. Please use the Attached FORM
and provide it to:

City of Credit River
Attn: DATA PRACTICES ACT – Responsible Authority
18985 Meadow View Blvd
Prior, Lake, MN 55372

You are not required to identify yourself or explain the reason for your data request. However, you may
need to provide us with some personal information for practical reasons (for example: if you want us to
mail copies to you, you need to provide us with an address or P.O Box). If we do not understand your
request and have no way to contact you, we cannot respond to your request.
If you do not use the data request form, your request should:

Say that you are making a request for public data under the Government Data Practices Act
(Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13).

Include whether you would like to inspect the data, have copies of the data, or both.

Provide a clear description of the data you would like to inspect or have copied.

You can ask to look at (inspect) data at our offices or ask for copies of public data that we keep.

How We Will Respond to Your Data Request

Upon receiving your request, we will review it.

We may ask you to clarify what data you are requesting. If we do not have the data, we will
notify you within 10 business days.

If we have the data, but we are not allowed to give it to you, we will tell you as soon as
reasonably possible and identify the law that prevents us from providing the data.

If we have the data, and the data are public, we will respond to your request appropriately and
promptly, within a reasonable amount of time by doing one of the following:

o Arrange a date, time, and place for you to inspect the data at our offices; or

o You may choose to pick up your copies, or we will mail or email them to you. We will
provide electronic copies (such as email or CD-ROM) upon request, if we keep the data
in that format and we can reasonably make a copy.

o Response time may be impacted by the size and/or complexity of your request, and by
the number of requests you make in a given period of time.

If you do not make arrangements within 10 business days to inspect the data or pay for the copies, we
will conclude that you no longer want the data and will consider your request closed. If you do not
understand some of the data (technical terminology, abbreviations, or acronyms), please tell the person
who provided the data to you. We will give you an explanation if you ask.

The Data Practices Act does not require us to create or collect new data in response to a data request, or
to provide data in a specific form or arrangement if we do not keep the data in that form or
arrangement. For example, if the data you request is on paper only, we are not required to create
electronic documents to respond to your request. If we agree to create data in response to your
request, we will work with you on the details of your request, including cost and response time. We are
also not required to respond to questions that are not about your data requests, or requests for
government data.

Requests for Summary Data

Summary data are statistical records or reports created by removing identifying information about
individuals from entirely private or confidential data. You may use the data request form to request
summary data. We will respond to your request within ten business days with the data or details of
when the data will be ready and how much we will charge you. We will commence the preparation of
the summary data if you make your request in writing and PREPAY based upon a responsible estimate
for the cost of creating the data.

 City Data Practices Contacts

City of Credit River - Responsible Authority Contacts are

Data Practices Compliance Official
Name: City Administrator
Address: 18985 Meadow View Blvd Prior Lake, MN 55372
Phone #: 952-440-5515

Data Practices Designee(s)
Name: City Clerk
Address: 18985 Meadow View Blvd Prior Lake, MN 55372
Phone #: 952-440-5515

Copy Costs & Staff Time – When You Request Public Data

Minnesota Statutes, section 13.03, subdivision 3(c) allows us to charge for copies.

1. You must pay for the copies before we give them to you.
2. We do not charge for copies if the estimated cost is less than $25.00
3. Multiple requests made within the same 10 business-day period will be treated as a single
request for the purpose of calculating total copy costs.
4. If possible, we will provide you with an estimation of the total cost of supplying copies and will
be required to be paid in advance.
5. These costs are in addition to the cost of staff time necessary to secure / search and compile the
data. The employee charge per hour is set at their average compensation rate per hour but shall
not be less than $35/hour.

For 100 or fewer paper copies – 25 cents per page

100 or fewer pages of black and white, letter or legal-size paper copies cost 25¢ for a one-sided copy, or
50¢ for a two-sided copy.

Most other types of copies – Actual cost

The charge for most other types of copies, when a charge is not set by statute or rule, is the actual cost
of searching for and retrieving the data and making the copies or electronically sending the data. In
determining the actual cost of making copies, we include employee time, the cost of the materials onto
which we are copying the data (paper, CD, DVD, etc.), and mailing costs (if any). If your request is for
copies of data that we cannot copy ourselves, such as photographs, we will charge you the actual cost
we must pay an outside vendor for the copies. If, based on your request, we find it necessary for a
higher-paid employee to search for and retrieve the data, we will calculate search and retrieval charges
at the higher salary/wage.