MINUTES - ACCURACY OF RECORD KEEPING

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1,14 MLFAiTCIPAL CORPORATIONS 26 balance between the interest of the public to be informed onublic matters and the harm t re utatiorrs whi p ch would likely result from permitting inspection, Publication or disclosure of public records may properly be denied where violative of the employee's constitu. tional right to.be secure against invasions of privacy.22 Deemed not to rise to the level of an invasion of privacy, however, is the di Official records listsclo� sure of ing names o delinquent real estate tax- payers.3 And it has been held that whatever rights of privacyten- ants of a city housing authorityhave in the status of their rental accounts and the amount and sources of their income are implicitly waived w9dn they allow their rend payments to becomedelin- quent.'"" Accordingly, a legitimate and reasonable reason for the inspection should be shown,4 `lie applicant must have some inter- est at stake which renders the inspection necessary, 211 otherwise his' application is properly denied. Ordinarily, a general inspection o all documents in the hands of any corporate official t all tunes and from any -,motive, irrespective of whether* the applicant has an personal interest in such documents or any information to be de- rived e - rived therefrom, will be denied -27 Denial also is required where access to the records sought i �; is provided for in the controlling statute or charter r•oviion.But where application to inspectub- lic documents has been made ata proper p t�rrre and place, for a sound reason, under reasonable official regulations, and has been refused mandamus may be invoked to compel in pection.29 The courts will apply a rule of reason in determinin -whether and to what extent thejudicial n�a gmachinery will be utilized to compel enforcement of the right to inspect public records; they will balance the equities and consider the objective sought to be accomplished and such other factors as they deem pertinent.30 It is only in the exceptional case that inspection should d be denied.31 the fact that an examination of the books and records would cause worry and incon- venience or that the citizen ma ii g application for examination' is politicall,, hostile to the administration is no excuse Por denial. 112 It may be required by statute that the public officer who refuses a request to p {rMit inspection because he believes it to be harmful t the public interest, or because it would unduly damage r -e ut ti n must ,justify such refusal by eciall 1 p stating his reasons therefor. Depending upon the facts, circumstances, and applicable law, a court mai* copel,1 or refuse to compel," the production of hooks and records for use in a pending case. The right of inspectiontion may also be curtailed where publicpolicy enacted into statutory ry lave demands that disclosure be prohibited, and public interest i pre- serving serving confidential information outweighs the interest of thep ri-