Senate Bill No. 529
(By Senators Buckalew, Ross,
Dugan, Kimble, Anderson, Dittmar, Scott, Sprouse and Sharpe)
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[Introduced March 24, 1997; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section four, article one, chapter twenty-nine-b of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to exempting certain materials under the freedom of information act; and requiring binding agreements obligating public funds be disclosed.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section four, article one, chapter twenty-nine-b of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:

ARTICLE 1. PUBLIC RECORDS.

§29B-1-4. Exemptions.

The following categories of information are specifically exempt from disclosure under the provisions of this article:
(1) Trade secrets, as used in this section, which may include, but are not limited to, any formula, 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 who are using it to fabricate, produce or compound an article or trade or a service or to locate minerals or other substances, having commercial value, and which gives its users an opportunity to obtain business advantage over competitors;
(2) Information of a personal nature such as that kept in a personal, medical or similar file, if the public disclosure thereof would constitute an unreasonable invasion of privacy, unless the public interest by clear and convincing evidence requires disclosure in the particular instance: Provided, That nothing in this article shall be construed as precluding an individual from inspecting or copying his or her own personal, medical or similar file;
(3) Test questions, scoring keys and other examination data used to administer a licensing examination, examination for employment or academic examination;
(4) Records of law-enforcement agencies that deal with the detection and investigation of crime and the internal records and notations of such law-enforcement agencies which are maintained for internal use in matters relating to law enforcement;
(5) Information specifically exempted from disclosure by statute;
(6) Records, archives, documents or manuscripts describing the location of undeveloped historic, prehistoric, archaeological, paleontological and battlefield sites or constituting gifts to any public body upon which the donor has attached restrictions on usage or the handling of which could irreparably damage such record, archive, document or manuscript;
(7) Information contained in or related to examination, operating or condition reports prepared by, or on behalf of, or for the use of any agency responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions, except those reports which are by law required to be published in newspapers;
(8) Internal memoranda or letters received or prepared by any public body; and
(9) Any documentary material, data or other writing made or received for the purpose of furnishing assistance to a new or existing business: Provided, That any binding agreement entered into or signed by a public body which obligates public funds shall be considered a public record and open for public inspection as of the date the agreement is entered into or signed, pursuant to the provisions of this article.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act any materials made or received for the purpose of furnishing assistance to a new or existing business. The bill provides that any agreement obligating public funds would be considered a public document subject to disclosure.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.