Section 2. Sections 405 and 406 of the act are amended to read:
Section 405. Offices, Records and Papers [to be Kept at County Seat].--(a) [The] Except as otherwise provided in subsection (a.1), the commissioners, controller, treasurer, sheriff, recorder of deeds, prothonotary, clerk of courts [of quarter sessions and oyer and terminer], clerk of the orphans' court, register of wills, recorder of deeds and district attorney shall keep their respective offices and all public records and papers belonging thereto at the county seat and in such buildings as may be erected or appropriated for such purpose.
(a.1) The county commissioners shall have the power to keep and maintain records and to contract with persons for storage, retrieval and transmission of county records within or outside the county, except that no records shall be stored outside the county seat without the approval of the officer in charge of the office to which the records belong. The approval of the president judge shall be required if records are in the custody of agencies of the court of common pleas, the clerk of courts, the prothonotary, the register of wills and the clerk of the orphans' court. Public records stored outside of the county seat shall be made accessible to the general public at the county seat by means of an electronic telecopying system or facility which will permit the retrieval of the records or exact copies thereof within three business days.
(b) The county commissioners shall furnish each of such officers with an office in the county building, courthouse or other building at the county seat.
(c) Any person failing or refusing to maintain his office and to keep all public records and papers belonging thereto in the buildings appropriated for such purpose, in accordance with the provisions of this section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to undergo imprisonment until he complies with the provisions of this section, or until sooner discharged by order of the court, and to pay a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, to be paid to the use of the county.
Section 406. Records Open to Inspection.--(a) The minute book and other fiscal records and documents of the county may be open to the inspection of any taxpayer thereof, but the proper officers may make reasonable rules and regulations respecting the time of such inspection and fees for copying.
(b) In case any officer shall refuse to permit the inspection of any fiscal record or document, the taxpayer may, by petition to the court of common pleas of the county, set forth his reasons for desiring to make such inspection, and if the court deems such reasons proper it shall order the officer to permit the inspection to be made.