- Resolution Adopting Rules and Regulations Concerning Public Information Act Requests
- Rules & Regulations Concerning Public Information Act Requests
Resident access to Information:
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Section 5 places the minutes of the monthly Council meetings, and other documents on its website
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Generally, documents submitted by residents to the Council, letters or other communications are treated as part of the public record of Section 5.
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An announcement of the posting of important new documents to the website is made to the Section’s discussion group. Residents may also request documents from the Section Manager and/or members of the Council via email or phone.
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Not all documents are placed on the website. For example, certain communications such as those between the Section’s attorney and the Council and Minutes of Executive Sessions of the Council are not shared with the residents.
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Communication between the Section's attorney and the Section 5 government (the client) is "privileged" and protected from public inspection.
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The Council will not disclose attorney-client privileged communications where we consider protection of the communications important for the interests of the whole community.
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Residents may make written requests to the Council for documents not available on the website including those not shared for the reasons given above.
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Requests to the Section 5 Council for the production of public records are governed by the Public Information Act codified at Section 10-611, et seq., of the State Government Article of the Maryland Code (the “Act”). The Act identifies documents that, in response to a resident’s written request: must be disclosed; may not be disclosed; and are subject to some discretion on disclosure by the custodian.
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Whenever Section 5 receives a written request from a resident for a document, it considers its response and provides a written reply indicating if the document request will be granted. If the request for a document or documents is to be denied, the letter from the Council to the requesting resident will provide the rationale for the Council’s decision.
Open Meetings Act
Maryland's Open Meetings Act is a statute that requires many State and local public bodies to hold their meetings in public, to give the public adequate notice of those meetings, and to allow the public to inspect meetings minutes. Find out more information at the Maryland Attorney General's website.