H. B. 3009
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss, and Delegates Varner,
Amores,
Browning, Kominar, Palumbo and Swartzmiller)
[Introduced February 13, 2003; referred to the
Committee on Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security then the
Judiciary.]
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 excluding certain
records from the freedom of information act that are collected
in the interest of homeland security by governmental bodies.
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) (a) 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) (b) 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) (c) Test questions, scoring keys and other examination
data used to administer a licensing examination, examination for
employment or academic examination;
(4) (d) 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) (e) Information specifically exempted from disclosure by
statute;
(6) (f) 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) (g) 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; and
(8) (h) Internal memoranda or letters received or prepared by
any public body; and
(i) Records assembled, prepared, or maintained in the interest
of homeland security or to prevent, mitigate, or respond to
terrorist acts or threat of terrorist acts as those acts are
defined in section twenty-four, article six, chapter sixty-one of
this code, the public disclosure of which would have a substantial
likelihood of threatening public safety or public health,
including, but not limited to:
(1) Those portions of records containing specific or unique
vulnerability assessments or specific or unique response plans,
data, databases, and inventories of potentially dangerous or
remedial goods or materials collected or assembled to assess and plan for terrorist acts; and communication codes or deployment
plans of law enforcement or emergency response personnel;
(2) Specific intelligence information and specific
investigative records shared by and between federal and
international law-enforcement agencies, state and local law
enforcement and other agencies within the department of military
affairs and public safety;
(3) National security records classified under federal
executive order and not subject to public disclosure under federal
law that are shared by federal agencies, and other records related
to national security briefings to assist state and local government
with domestic preparedness for acts of terrorism; and
(4) Computing, telecommunications and network security records
and data that include: Passwords; security codes or programs,
security or disaster recovery plans, risk assessments, tests, or
the results of those tests; architectural or infrastructure
designs; maps or other records that show the location or layout of
the facilities where computing, telecommunications, or network
infrastructure are located or planned to be located; codes for
facility security systems; or codes for secure applications.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to include in the
exemptions from public disclosure information that could be used in
a terrorist act which would have a detrimental effect on public
safety or public health.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.