4.3. EDSR 03-06-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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DATA PRACTICES LAW The Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (MGDPA) is a series of state laws that attempt to balance the public's right to know what their government is doing,individuals' right to privacy in government data created, and maintained about them, and the government's need to function responsibly and efficiently. The Data Practices Law governs all data maintained by a public entity. There are three classifications of data: 1. Public—Accessible to anyone; 2. Private/nonpublic—Accessible to the person who is the subject of the Data and to the governmental entity; and 3. Confidential/protected nonpublic—Accessible only to the governmental entity. The identity of individuals who register complaints concerning violations of state laws or local ordinances concerning the use of real estate/real property is confidential data. Data pertaining to members of boards and commissions is publicgovernmental data.- 1. ata.1. Names of board and commission members are public. 2. Residential address. 3. Either a telephone number or electronic email address where the member can be reached, or both at the request of the appointee. Every city in Minnesota must comply with the MGDPA. Government data means all data collected, created,received,maintained, or disseminated by the city regardless of its physical form, storage media, or conditions of use. This includes data one receives or creates in the capacity of board member. The Act presumes that all government data are public and are accessible by the public for inspection and copying unless there is a federal law, state statute, or temporary classification of data that provides differently. Since the data a person collects, creates,receives,maintains, or disseminates in the capacity of board member is government data, a board member may wish to be careful about where the data is created, collected, etc. Government data can be easily, even accidentally, created at home or work that is both public and subject to a retention schedule and the board member may be required to produce the data if it is requested. Also,board members may wish to take care in what they say in their official capacity within emails or even text messages. There are significant civil penalties for willfully releasing private and confidential data and for willfully refusing to release public data.