Walk It Through: The Dumping Ground
Trash in the creek, a records request to the county, and three minutes at the commission meeting.
Someone keeps dumping bags of household trash along a creek near a county road. One bag has a name on a piece of mail.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One creek and one county. A larger commercial dump, a records denial taken to court, a closed executive session and the cleanup fund are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Custodian of the recordsThe official who keeps a public record, to whom a request goes directly, and who answers within a maximum of five days not counting weekends and holidays.
- Exempt propertyProperty a resident may hold apart from a creditor's execution, such as a car up to $5,000 and household goods up to $8,000, up to $15,000 in all.
- Governing bodyA public board, commission or council whose meetings are open to the public except where the law specifically allows them to be closed.
- LitterTrash dumped anywhere but a proper receptacle, on public or private property or within 100 feet of the waters of the state.