Request a Public Record

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PLEASE NOTE: This office DOES NOT handle or process requests for records from the following agencies as these are not under the purview or supervision of the Board of Commissioners:

  • 🚫 Sheriff’s Office (Including Animal Control) 
  • 🚫 Tax Commissioner
  • 🚫 Probate Court (Including wills, birth certificates, marriage certificates, gun permits, etc)
  • 🚫 Clerk of Superior Court and Superior Court
  • 🚫 Clerk of Juvenile Court and Juvenile Court
  • 🚫 Magistrate Court
  • 🚫 Coroner’s Office
  • 🚫 Board of Elections
  • 🚫 Board of Assessors
  • 🚫 Board of Equalization
  • 🚫 Library Board
  • 🚫 Health Department
  • 🚫 DFACS
  • 🚫 Industrial Development Authority

For any of the above listed offices, you must contact the Open Records Officer, Agency Head or Elected Official for those departments.

To view a list of ALL RECORDS OFFICERS for BUTTS COUNTY, click HERE

Thank you for your interest in viewing county records. If you are seeking a county record that is not under the jurisdiction of one of the above agencies, please fill out an OPEN RECORDS FORM and state the specific materials/records being sought.

Requests which are unclear, illegible or sent to the wrong agency may result in error and delay in the process. 

County records would include matters pertaining to the meetings of the Board of Commissioners and the agencies that report directly to the Board of Commissioners. These would not include the records of any Constitutional Officers or Elected Officials such as deeds, divorce records, marriage records, arrest records, other court records, tax records, tax liens, titles or related. This office will not fulfill any request for production of records that is not under its jurisdiction.

We are able to respond to Open Records requests for the following agencies under the jurisdiction of the Butts County Board of Commissioners:

  • ✅Administration Department
  • ✅Commissioner’s Office (Minutes, Resolutions, Records)
  • ✅E-911 Communications Department
  • ✅Facilities and Buildings Department
  • ✅Finance Department
  • ✅Fire Department
  • ✅Homeland Security & Emergency Management Agency
  • ✅Human Resources Department
  • ✅Leisure Services & Recreation Department
  • ✅Planning and Development
  • ✅Public Works

Certain records are exempt from open records request. This includes, but is not limited to the following: any information pertaining to an employee’s medical records, including insurance or documents that would be an invasion of personal privacy (OCGA 50-18-72); documents concerning an ongoing criminal investigation (OCGA 50-18-72-A 3); documents pertaining to real estate transactions, until such time as the transaction is completed (OCGA 50-18-72 A 6); documents sealed by court order (OCGA 50-18-70 B) and any documents that are covered by attorney/client privilege (OCGA 50-18-72 E)

Additionally, the Office is not required to produce records which do not exist; therefore, no public officer or county is required to prepare reports, summaries, or compilations not in existence at the time of the request. We will not create or produce a record that we do not already have on hand and the only records covered are those not exempt by law.

This Office does not possess or maintain court records, criminal history records or any other records related to the operations of the judicial system of Butts County and its Courts. For inquiries of this nature, please contact the proper Court office that would have jurisdiction over these records.

The County has three business days to respond to the request for open records. This response will cover what records are available, an estimated amount of time it will take to process the request and an estimated cost for processing the request. If all conditions are agreeable to the requestor, the processing of the actual request will begin at this point. Please note that a request for open records is NOT required to be fulfilled within 3 business days – it is the response to the request that is required within that period of time.

The first 15 minutes of research time is at no charge; any research that is conducted beyond the first 15 minutes will be charged per hour at the hourly rate of the lowest paid full-time employee with the necessary skill and training to respond to your request. In addition, each document will have to be hand inspected to determine whether any of the information contained in the document is excluded or protected from disclosure. If such information is included, this will be redacted.  Should you need copies of any of the requested records, the charge is generally 10 cents per page for letter and legal sized documents. There will be a charge for the actual cost of any media storage that is required to fulfill the request.

Please submit completed form via standard US Mail only for records under the Board of Commissioners Office to the following: 

Office of the Deputy County Manager
Open Records Request
625 W. Third Street  Suite 4
Jackson, Georgia 30233
770-775-8200

 

*Please note:  These rules and open records request form do not pertain to Superior Court cases. For open records requests for court cases, please contact the District Attorney’s Office at (770) 504-2407 or the Clerk of Superior Court at (770) 775-8215.

Resolution of the Board of Commissioners Governing Open Records

Read 17 March 2017 & 11 April 2017; Adopted 11 April 2017

RESOLUTION OF THE BUTTS COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ESTABLISHING POLICIES FOR COMPLIANCE WITH THE GEORGIA OPEN RECORDS ACT

WHEREAS, Butts County, Georgia is subject to the provisions of the Georgia Open Records Act, codified at O.C.G.A. §§50-18-70 et seq., and

WHEREAS, the Butts County Board of Commissioners, as the governing authority of Butts County, strongly adheres to the principle of open government, encourages public access to public records, and fully supports the public policy expressed by the General Assembly at O.C.G.A. §50-18-70 (a); and

WHEREAS, the Butts County Board of Commissioners finds that policies for compliance with the Open Records Act will enhance Butts County’s ability to comply fully and in all respects with the Open Records Act, while at the same time providing for orderly and efficient responses that will minimize, to the extent possible, disruption in the delivery of other public services that can result from the absence of clear policies addressing responses to Open Records Act requests;

NOW, THEREFORE, it is hereby RESOLVED by the Butts County Board of Commissioners that the following shall constitute Butts County’s Policies for Compliance with the Georgia Open Records Act:

1. Under the authority of O.C.G.A. §50-18-71(b)(1)(B), the County Clerk of Butts County is hereby designated as the custodian of this agency’s records and shall serve as the “Open Records Officer” for Butts County agencies under the direct control of the Board of Commissioners.

2. One of the purposes of these policies is to have one, and only one, county employee responsible for coordinating Open Record Act responses, in order to insure compliance with the law and to avoid the disruptions and inefficiencies that occur when numerous county employees attempt to respond to requests separately and without coordination among themselves and other departments. The County Clerk is therefore primarily responsible for Open Records Act responses under Commission purview; due to strict time requirements under the law, the County Clerk and his or her supervisor must develop and implement a plan to comply with these policies when the County Clerk is absent for any reason.

3. All written requests to inspect or for copies of records maintained by any and all departments under the direction and control of the Butts County Board of Commissioners shall be delivered to the County Clerk. In cases where a person submits a written request to any other employee or agent of Butts County, said employee or agent shall immediately deliver said request to the County Clerk, either personally or by email; for purposes of this policy the term “immediately” shall mean as soon as reasonably possible but in no event more than one (1) business day after the request is received; if the County Clerk is absent or unavailable the written request, if not emailed to the County Clerk, shall be placed in a box or receptacle designated by the County Clerk for that purpose.

4. The County Clerk shall not be responsible for Open Records Requests that are made for records under Offices not under the Board of Commissioners, including Sheriff, any Court or Court related office or agency, Tax Assessors or Tax Commissioner, Board of Elections, Public Library, Health Department, Coroner, DFACS or external agency receiving funding from the County.

5. If the County Clerk has any questions concerning the appropriateness of a request or the Clerk’s response to same, the County Clerk is authorized to contact the County Attorney directly and request assistance with the response.

6. In the event a citizen makes an oral request for records to any agent or employee of Butts County other than the County Clerk, said agent or employee shall (1) direct the citizen to the County Clerk as the County’s Open Records Officer, (2) notify the County Clerk of the substance of the request and the name and contact information of the person making the request if available; this notification shall take place in the manner and within the time specified in Section 2 above.

7. In the event the County Clerk receives an oral request for records the Clerk shall be authorized to summarize the request in writing and ask the person making the request to sign and date it, but if the citizen fails to do so the Clerk shall process the request in the same manner as if it had been a written request, based on the Clerk’s understanding of the oral request.

8. The County Clerk shall provide a written response to every request within three (3) business days following the Clerk’s receipt of the request; in the event the Clerk is not able to make the records themselves available within three (3) business days, the response must notify the citizen making the request of that fact, provide a description of the records that exist or are believed to exist, as well as a good faith timeline for when the records will be available.

9. The County Clerk shall be authorized to contact the person making the request and to schedule a time during normal business hours, on a date within the three (3) business days required by law, for the person making the request to inspect the records if personal inspection has been requested. If the records cannot be retrieved and produced within that time period, the Clerk shall notify the requesting party of that fact within three (3) business days after the Clerk’s receipt of the request, and the Clerk shall schedule a time for inspection on a date as close as practical to the date the records will be available. In scheduling all such inspections the Clerk is authorized to take into account his or her normal workload and duties, and to set a time for the inspection that does not unreasonably interfere with the Clerk’s other duties and responsibilities.

10. The County Clerk should always give the person making a request the option of having copies made and either mailed (or emailed where practical to do so) to the requestor, or to be picked up by the requestor at a designated location, upon payment of the search and retrieval costs and copying costs allowed by law.

11. The first fifteen (15) minutes of time required to search for, retrieve and redact (where necessary) records in response to a request may not be charged to the person making the request. Where more than fifteen (15) minutes of an employee’s time is required to respond to a request, and the charges will exceed $25.00, the County Clerk shall notify the requestor that there will be a charge based on the prorated hourly rate of the lowest paid employee who is qualified to prepare the response, together with an estimate of the final charges to be assessed, and determine if the requestor will agree to paying the charge. The requestor shall have the option of obtaining the records by agreeing to pay the final charge, or cancelling the request. The County Clerk shall not require prepayment of the charge unless the total amount due will exceed $500.00.

12. In the event a person fails to pay an agreed upon charge, the County Clerk shall be authorized to: (1) initiate collection proceedings pursuant to O.C.G.A. §50-18-71(c)(3), and (2) require prepayment for any and all future productions to that same person until such time as the costs for all prior productions have been paid or resolved, per O.C.G.A. §50-18-71(d).

13. Any person making a request to inspect records shall be permitted to bring his or her own portable copier or scanner and to copy or scan records in a non-destructive manner without the imposition of copying costs, but the search and retrieval costs may still be assessed where permitted by law.

14. The County Clerk is encouraged to make public records available through the County’s website, and where such records are available on the County’s website the Clerk may direct requestors to that resource. Notwithstanding this provision, if the request is for the data fields in the electronic format in which the data is kept, the Clerk shall provide such information as required by law.

15. Pursuant to law, “No public officer or agency shall be required to prepare new reports, summaries, or compilations not in existence at the time of the request.” O.C.G.A. §50-18-71(j).

16. A copy of this Resolution shall be provided to the legal organ the county and shall be posted on the County’s website. The County’s website shall also contain a prominent notice that the County Clerk is the Open Records Officer of Butts County Board of Commissioners and its direct agencies.