W. Va. Code R. § 60-2-9

Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 50, December 13, 2024

Section 60-2-9 - Exemptions

9.1. The Act provides that the Department may exempt the following from disclosure:

9.1.a. Trade secrets, as used in this section, which may include, but are not limited to, any formula, plan, pattern, process, tool, mechanism, compounds, procedure, production data, or compilation of information that is not patented and is known only to certain individuals within a commercial concern who are using it to fabricate, produce or compound an article or trade or a service or to locate minerals or other substances, having commercial value, and that gives its users an opportunity to obtain business advantage over competitors; provided that in no case shall effluent data submitted pursuant to the West Virginia Water Pollution Control Act [W. Va. Code § 22-11-1, et seq.] be considered exempt from disclosure;

9.1.b. Information of a personal nature, such as that kept in a personal, medical or similar file, if the public disclosure thereof would constitute an unreasonable invasion of privacy, unless the public interest by clear and convincing evidence requires disclosure in the particular instance: Provided, that nothing in this rule shall be construed as precluding an individual from inspecting or copying his or her own personal, personnel, medical or similar file;

9.1.c. Test questions, scoring keys and other examination data used to administer a licensing examination, examination for employment or academic examination;

9.1.d. Records of law enforcement agencies that deal with the detection and investigation of crime and the internal records and notations of such law enforcement agencies that are maintained for internal use in matters relating to law enforcement;

9.1.e. Information specifically exempted from disclosure by statute;

9.1.f. Records, archives, documents or manuscripts describing the location of undeveloped historic, prehistoric, archaeological, paleontological and battlefield sites or constituting gifts to any public body upon which the donor has attached restrictions on usage or the handling of which could irreparably damage such record, archive, document or manuscript;

9.1.g. Information contained in or related to examination, operating or condition reports prepared by, or on behalf of, or for the use of any agency responsible for the regulations or supervision of financial institutions, except those reports that are by law required to be published in newspapers;

9.1.h. Internal memoranda or letters received or prepared by any public body;

9.1.i. Records assembled, prepared or maintained to prevent, mitigate or respond to terrorist acts or the threat of terrorist acts, the public disclosure of which threaten the public safety or the public health;

9.1.j. Those portions of records containing specific or unique vulnerability assessments or specific or unique response plans, data, databases, and inventories of goods or materials collected or assembled to respond to terrorist acts, and communication codes or deployment plans of law enforcement or emergency response personnel;

9.1.k. Specific intelligence information and specific investigative records dealing with terrorist acts or the threat of a terrorist act shared by and between federal and international law enforcement agencies, state and local law enforcement and other agencies within the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety;

9.1.l. National security records classified under federal executive order and not subject to public disclosure under federal law that are shared by federal agencies and other records related to national security briefings to assist state and local government with domestic preparedness for acts of terrorism;

9.1.m. Computing, telecommunications and network security records, passwords, security codes or programs used to respond to or plan against acts of terrorism which may be the subject of a terrorist attack;

9.1.n. Security or disaster recovery plans, risk assessments, tests or the results of those tests;

9.1.o. Architectural or infrastructure designs, maps or other records that show the location or layout of the facilities where computing, telecommunications or network infrastructure used to plan against or respond to terrorism are located or planned to be located;

9.1.p. Codes for facility security systems or codes for secure applications for such facilities referred to in subdivision (o) of this subsection;

9.1.q. Specific engineering plans and descriptions of existing public utility plants and equipment; and

9.1.r. Customer proprietary network information of other telecommunications carriers, equipment manufacturers and individual customers, consistent with 47 U.S.C. § 222.

W. Va. Code R. § 60-2-9