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June 4, 1975
THE HONORABLE V. ELWOOD MASON,
Clerk Circuit Court of King George County
74-75 69
I have received your letter of May 19, 1975, inquiring whether
your office copy of the report of fees, allowances, commissions and
salaries which you are required to file with the State Compensation
Board pursuant to §14.1-136, Code of Virginia (1950), as
amended, is a public record which must be made available for public
inspection.
Section 14.1-139 provides that your fee book "shall at all times
be open to public inspection" but this statute does not apply to the
report required by §14.1-136. The Virginia Freedom of
Information Act, §2.1-340, et seq., broadly defines the term
"official records" to include "reports or other material, regardless
of physical form or characteristics, made and received in pursuance
of law by the public officers of the State and its counties,
municipalities and subdivisions of government in the transaction of
public business." See §2.1-341(b). Section 2.1-342 provides,
with certain exceptions not applicable to your inquiry, that "all
official records shall be open to inspection and copying by any
citizens of this State during the regular office hours of the
custodian of such records."
The report required by §14.1-136 is made pursuant to law by a
public official in the transaction of public business. It is an
"official record" as are all of its copies regardless of physical
form. To conclude that the original report is an "official record,"
but that the copy retained by the prepaper is not, would frustrate
the complete achievement of the object sought by the General Assembly
in the enactment of §2.1-340, et seq. Accordingly, I am of the
opinion that your inquiry must be answered in the affirmative.
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