A designee is a person designated by the responsible authority (RA) to help administer and implement the requirements of the Data Practices Act and the Administrative Rules. (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13, Minnesota Rules, Chapter 1205)
A designee can be responsible for receiving and complying with requests for government data, and for answering questions from the public about the Act or the Rules. The RA decides whether to appoint designees and how many to appoint. The RA is not required to appoint designees.
The law defines a designee as a person who is in charge of individual files or systems containing government data and receives and complies with requests for government data. (Minnesota Statutes, section 13.02, subd. 6)
Often, an RA will appoint a division head – or the director of a unit within the entity – as the designee for the data maintained by that division or unit.
Note that the Rules require each entity to include the names and job titles of any designees in a document that is available to the public. The document must also identify the RA or designees as the persons responsible for answering questions from the public about the Act and the Rules. An entity may include this information in its public data access policy. (Minnesota Rules, 1205.1200, subp. 2)
If you have questions about designees, please contact our office.
