Amending the Kansas open records act by limiting certain charges for furnishing records and employee time required to make records available and exempting certain records from disclosure and amending the Kansas open meetings act by providing for the membership calculation of subordinate groups and requiring public bodies or agencies that live stream meetings to ensure that the public is able to observe.

The bill now explicitly states that the legislative and judicial branches are excluded from the new fee limitations and must follow their own existing rules.

New requirements were added for the executive branch to charge $.25 per page for printed copies but no fee for electronic copies.

The method for calculating staff time fees in the executive branch was clarified to use the lowest qualified hourly rate plus actual printing costs.

The bill was amended to include provisions for the open meetings act, expanding its legislative reach beyond just record requests.

New exemptions were added for records compiled during formally closed investigations where no violations were found, as well as for records containing obscene material.

The maximum fee for printed copies was reduced from a flat $.25 per page to the actual cost of furnishing the records, including staff time.

Agencies are now required to use the lowest-cost category of staff reasonably necessary when charging for employee time and must provide itemized cost statements to requesters.

Public bodies that live stream meetings must now ensure the public is able to observe the stream.

The deadline for county and district attorneys to file violation reports with the attorney general was changed from January to October.