§ 132-6. Inspection and examination of records.
§ 132‑6. Inspection andexamination of records.
(a) Every custodian ofpublic records shall permit any record in the custodian's custody to beinspected and examined at reasonable times and under reasonable supervision byany person, and shall, as promptly as possible, furnish copies thereof uponpayment of any fees as may be prescribed by law. As used herein,"custodian" does not mean an agency that holds the public records ofother agencies solely for purposes of storage or safekeeping or solely to providedata processing.
(b) No personrequesting to inspect and examine public records, or to obtain copies thereof,shall be required to disclose the purpose or motive for the request.
(c) No request toinspect, examine, or obtain copies of public records shall be denied on thegrounds that confidential information is commingled with the requestednonconfidential information. If it is necessary to separate confidential fromnonconfidential information in order to permit the inspection, examination, orcopying of the public records, the public agency shall bear the cost of suchseparation on the following schedule:
State agencies after June 30, 1996;
Municipalities with populations of 10,000 or more,counties with populations of 25,000 or more, as determined by the 1990 U.S.Census, and public hospitals in those counties, after June 30, 1997;
Municipalities with populations of less than 10,000,counties with populations of less than 25,000, as determined by the 1990 U.S.Census, and public hospitals in those counties, after June 30, 1998;
Political subdivisions and their agencies that are nototherwise covered by this schedule, after June 30, 1998.
(d) Notwithstanding theprovisions of subsections (a) and (b) of this section, public records relatingto the proposed expansion or location of specific business or industrialprojects may be withheld so long as their inspection, examination or copyingwould frustrate the purpose for which such public records were created;provided, however, that nothing herein shall be construed to permit thewithholding of public records relating to general economic development policiesor activities. Once the State, a local government, or the specific business hasannounced a commitment by the business to expand or locate a specific projectin this State or a final decision not to do so and the business hascommunicated that commitment or decision to the State or local governmentagency involved with the project, the provisions of this subsection allowingpublic records to be withheld by the agency no longer apply. Once theprovisions of this subsection no longer apply, the agency shall disclose assoon as practicable, and within 25 business days, public records requested forthe announced project that are not otherwise made confidential by law. Anannouncement that a business or industrial project has committed to expand orlocate in the State shall not require disclosure of local government recordsrelating to the project if the business has not selected a specific locationwithin the State for the project. Once a specific location for the project hasbeen determined, local government records must be disclosed, upon request, inaccordance with the provisions of this section. For purposes of this section,"local government records" include records maintained by the Statethat relate to a local government's efforts to attract the project.
(e) The application ofthis Chapter is subject to the provisions of Article 1 of Chapter 121 of theGeneral Statutes, the North Carolina Archives and History Act.
(f) Notwithstandingthe provisions of subsection (a) of this section, the inspection or copying ofany public record which, because of its age or condition could be damagedduring inspection or copying, may be made subject to reasonable restrictionsintended to preserve the particular record. (1935, c. 265, s. 6; 1987, c. 835, s. 1; 1995, c. 388,s. 2; 2005‑429, s. 1.1.)