Creation of a New Record

noncriminal incident police reports are available under FOIA, though police may excise personal identifying information; phone director of city employees, if it exists, is subject to disclosure under FOIA.

public body not required to merge two separate databases to create a record containing the information sought by a requester; requester can ask for both databases and manipulate the raw data himself.

Public body not required to compile a record, but must notify the requester within the required time.

When determining the actual cost of providing copies, a public body may take into consideration (1) number of hours reasonably necessary to compile, copy and assemble documents, (2) cost of computer time used and (3) costs of reproducing the records. If a document is created at the request of a citizen, even though the public body may receive a benefit from having permanent use of the document, it would not be unreasonable to pass on the expense of its production to the requestor if the requestor were notified in advance of the estimated cost of preparing the document.

Records on salaries paid to public employees open.