Electronic Records

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Most records these days are in a computer.  The Act plainly covers these records.  Moreover, the 1999 amendments to the Act require the City to make the electronic records available to you on the City web page or by email.  See § 2.1-342.H for the details. 

Unless you want a copy of the paper document for evidence, you probably will want the electronic version.  For sure that should save copy costs.  As to formats, the City appears to be using Microsoft Office97.  They also have some mainframe databases in more arcane formats.  They don't have to give you the records in a format they don't regularly use, but they do have to make "reasonable efforts" to provide other formats.  This creates room for lots of negotiation.  If they are acting in good faith (which we should see more and more in the future), you should be able to get the records you want in a format that your computer can understand.

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