Hamilton County's attorney said the county soon will approve a new open records policy that will include details of how it will deal with multiple records requests.
In a letter sent to the Times Free Press last week, the county asked that, until the policy is in place, all records requests should be made through "the appropriate county office" instead of requesting records from individual officials and employees so the county can track them.
County Attorney Rheubin Taylor said the county would face "inevitable liability" if county employees and officials did not properly comply with the requests.
"At present, the county mayor has members of his staff drafting policy and procedures for the county's response to requests made pursuant to the Tennessee Open Records Act," Taylor wrote. "I would anticipate the final version being ready for County Commission approval within the next few weeks."
Taylor said "all the requests we've been receiving" prompted the decision to draw up a new policy but did not offer specific numbers or name specific media organizations.
In the last few months, the Times Free Press made requests for mail and e-mails sent to commissioners. In August, Elisha Hodge, Tennessee's counsel for the state Office of Open Records, gave commissioners an hourlong presentation on the Open Records and Open Meetings Act. The presentation was scheduled after the Times Free Press started making the requests.
Taylor said the policy the county is considering will have a "frequent and multiple requests provision," which Hodge said could bring the county under the state's "safe harbor" policy if the county's new policy complies with state law.
She said the frequent and multiple request policy will allow the county to start charging a labor fee immediately once a person or group requesting records has made more than four requests for copies in a calendar month. The policy could not cover records that are routinely made available, such as meeting agendas.
Hodge said anyone who requests a copy of a record is entitled to a free hour of labor under state law. Under a frequent request policy, any person asking for copies of records more than four times a month would not receive a free first hour of labor after making the fifth request. The safe harbor policy would offer the county protection if the way it calculates labor fees were challenged in court.
"It's a safe harbor, a protection that you do what is allowed through the schedule and through these policies," Hodge said.
Hodge added there is no cost associated with inspecting a record, unless the law requires a fee for inspection.
Taylor declined to release a draft of the county's new records policy, claiming it is an "attorney work product." Taylor said the policy as proposed would apply to all county constitutional offices, but not the county school system.
County Mayor Claude Ramsey said the policy will ensure the county is complying with the state Open Records Law.