Those challenging a $2 per page fee for public records say that, under state public record laws, public agencies may only charge for actual costs – a maximum of ten cents per page -DB
Monterey County Herald
June 2, 2009
By Virginia Hennessey
If you’ve been paying $2 per page for records at the Monterey County Clerk’s Office, you’re due a refund, according to Southern California attorneys who are suing the county for allegedly violating the state Public Records Act.
Attorneys for California Public Records Research Inc. say state law allows local agencies to charge only the actual costs of copying public records, including real estate records maintained by county clerks.
In their class action lawsuit, filed Thursday in Monterey County Superior Court, Clifton Hodges and Donald Ricketts maintain those costs amount to no more than 10 cents per page.
But when they asked for copies of the county’s fee schedule, ordinances establishing the fees and any analyses done to determine those costs, they were told the 186 related pages would cost $372, or $2 a page.
Copymat in Salinas charges 7.5 cents a page; Monterey Copy Center asks 7 cents. Kinko’s, Hodges and Ricketts point out in their lawsuit, earned a profit of $45 million in 2006 charging less than 10 cents.
County Counsel Charles McKee and Clerk-Recorder Steve Vagnini, who is named in the suit, said when it comes to copying public documents, records in the clerk’s and assessor’s offices fall under different statutes than the Public Records Act.
McKee said those documents often are not standard 8-by-10-inch records, and the costs to copy them include costs for research, retrieval and the physical copy.
“There is an argument that can be made that real estate documents are not public records, they are official records,” Ricketts said Monday. “We don’t agree.”
“That’s why we have courts,” said Vagnini.
He and McKee said the attorneys are suing all California counties in an effort to obtain real estate records for resale.
Ricketts confirmed Monday that similar suits have been filed in all of the state’s 58 counties. They are, he said, precursors to a larger effort to make real estate records as financially available to the public as they are to title insurance companies, which receive the information for “pennies per page.”
“The client (in the lawsuit) is a Public Records Act research group actively engaged in going out and getting records, and they’re simply tired of paying those fees,” he said. “The recorder’s office has almost lost its way, its function, and become a conduit for title insurance companies.”
The lawsuit, which also alleges the Board of Supervisors established the copy fees without a required public hearing, asks the court to compel the county to turn over the requested 186 pages for no more than 10 cents per page, an injunction prohibiting the county from seeking excessive fees in the future and unspecified financial damages.
Copyright 2009 Monterey County Herald