Citations
1 V.S.A. §§ 315-320
(http://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/chapter/01/005)
Exemptions to Disclosure
The following records are exempt:
- Confidential documents;
- Trade secrets, including any formulae, plan, pattern, process, tool, mechanism, compound, procedure, production data, or compilation of information which is not patented, which is known only to certain individuals within a commercial concern, and which gives its user or owner an opportunity to obtain business advantage over competitors who do not know it or use it;
- Records of interdepartmental and intradepartmental communications in any county, city, town, village, town school district, incorporated school district, union school district, consolidated water district, fire district, or any other political subdivision of the State to the extent that they cover other than primarily factual materials and are preliminary to any determination of policy or action or precede the presentation of the budget at a meeting;
- Information which would reveal the location of archeological sites and underwater historic properties;
- Any data, records, or information developed, discovered, collected, or received by or on behalf of faculty, staff, employees, or students of the University of Vermont or the Vermont State Colleges in the conduct of study, research, or creative efforts on medical, scientific, technical, scholarly, or artistic matters, whether such activities are sponsored alone by the institution or in conjunction with a governmental body or private entity, until such data, records, or information are published, disclosed in an issued patent, or publicly released by the institution or its authorized agents. This subdivision applies to research notes and laboratory notebooks, lecture notes, manuscripts, creative works, correspondence, research proposals and agreements, methodologies, protocols, and the identities of or any personally identifiable information about participants in research.
Access Rights
- Any person
- Between the hours of 9 a.m. and 12 p.m., and 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., weekdays (not on holidays)
- Can charge actual cost of copying, and the cost of staff time if it will take more than 30 minutes
Destruction of Public Records
1 V.S.A. § 317a. Disposition of public records: A custodian of public records shall not destroy, give away, sell, discard, or damage any record or records in his or her charge, unless specifically authorized by law or under a record schedule approved by the state archivist pursuant to 3 V.S.A. § 117(a)(5).
