The
UNC Policy Manual
1300.2[R]
Adopted
09/27/89
North
Carolina General Statutes §§ 143-168 through 143-170.4 establishes State policy
for agency publications and public document mailing lists. All State agencies, including the constituent
institutions, must generate and distribute their "public documents"
according to these policies.
The
policies apply to "public documents" as defined in N.C.G.S. §
143-169.2 to mean "any annual, biennial, regular and special report or
publication of which at least 200 copies are printed, but
shall not include intra-agency communications nor agency
correspondence." The Attorney
General has ruled that "public documents" are only those documents
"printed at State expense," that is, published using State
appropriated funds. Therefore, to fall
within the requirements of the statute a document must be an annual, biennial,
regular or special publication, 200 or more copies of which are printed using
State appropriated funds and excluding (a) intra-agency communications (such as
this policy) and (b) agency correspondence.
Agency correspondence is understood to be any written communication
whose address label and content speak to an identifiable person or organization
or group of identifiable persons or organizations.
A. Printing Requirements for Public
Documents
1. The
statute requires that annual and biennial reports be compact, concise, and
lucid. [N.C.G.S. § 143-168]
2. The
act prohibits the use of multicolor [full color] process printing except for
(1) scientific illustrations when the illustrations would be unintelligible if
published in black and white and (2) in those instances when approval is given
in advance by the Department of Administration. [N.C.G.S. § 143-169]
3. The statute requires that every
publication published at State expense be prepared in accordance with the paper
recycling and reuse requirements set forth in N.C.G.S. § 130A-309.14(j). Those requirements, to be established in
further detail by the Department of Administration, generally promote use in
"reports published by State agencies" of recycled and recyclable
paper where practicable and printing on both sides of publication sheets. [N.C.G.S. § 143-169(c)]
When a public document is printed
on recycled paper, the document must contain a statement or symbol indicating
that it was printed on recycled paper.
[N.C.G.S. § 143-170.1(a2)]
4. The statute requires that each
public document, unless "published for the principal purpose of sale to
the public" show on the document near the identification of its issuer,
the following statement:
"[Number of copies] copies of this publication were printed
at a cost of $________, or $________ per copy."
The statute prohibits the mailing
or distribution at public expense of any public document lacking this
statement.
"Cost" is defined to
include printing costs in the form of labor, materials, and other identifiable
design, typesetting and binding costs. [N.C.G.S. § 143-170.1]
The Office of State Budget and Management
does not consider personnel manuals, State salary schedules, departmental
accounting system manuals and budget manuals to be subject to this section of
the act. These, however, would also seem
to be intra-agency communications exempt by definition.
5. The
act requires State agencies issuing public documents to review, update, and
correct the mailing list for each public document at least every 12 months and
that the agency certify to the director of the budget (the Governor) on or
before July 1 of each year that the mailing list has been updated and
corrected. [N.C.G.S. § 143-169.1(a)]
Excluded from this requirement are documents that are hand-distributed
or State-courier distributed. Also
excluded are documents distributed on a one-time basis or distributed multiple
times within the 12-month period before the annual certification but where it
is not contemplated that the document will be mailed again after the annual
certification. Further, mailing lists of
alumni of a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina, used or maintained by the constituent institution, are not
subject to this requirement.
To
update and correct the mailing list, the statute requires that the agency
include on the list only those persons or organizations who, within the
previous 12 months, have either requested that they be included on the mailing
list or have renewed a request that they be included, or are on the mailing
list by express provision of statute or judicial order.
B. Compliance
1. Each
chancellor is considered the "chief administrator of the agency
authorizing the printing" and is, therefore, responsible for compliance
with the act.
2. Each
chancellor shall be the certifying officer for all mailing lists generated at
the institution.
3.
In rendering the certification
to the director of the budget, the certifying officer should use the following
wording:
I certify that all mailing lists
of [name of institution] subject to the provisions of N.C.G.S. § 143-169.1,
have been carefully reviewed, updated, and corrected within the 12-month period
ending June 30, 19___, and were, therefore, in compliance with the requirements
of the act as of June 30, 19___.
4. This
certification should be sent directly to the director of the budget by July 1
of each year.
5. Each
chancellor should provide for the cost accounting of public documents as set
forth in A.3., above.
6. When an agency fails to insert in a
public document the cost statement and/or the notice or symbol concerning use
of recycled paper when required, "the agency's printing budget for the
fiscal year following the violation shall be reduced by ten percent (10%)." [N.C.G.S. § 143-170.1(a3)]
[This is an update to
Administrative Memorandum #278.]