Searching Fees for Records Requests
Q: As an architectural historian I often need to include alterations over time and must access and inspect, but not copy, building permits. Riverside County indicates they will charge a fee based on work they must do to collect onsite materials (microfilm, 4×5 cards, old computer printouts), and to provide information on how to extract the information. Are these fees allowed? Do they fall under “statutory fees”?
A: We are aware of no applicable “statutory fee.” If the County believes the state Legislature has passed a law — i.e., a statute – delegating to the County the right to determine whether to charge for accessing building permits (and, if so, how much), it should give you the citation to that statute (as we doubt any such statute exists).
Absent such a statute, we are aware of no authority allowing the County to charge you for simply inspecting public records. Under the Public Records Act, the County must “make the records promptly available to any person, upon payment of fees covering direct costs of duplication, or a statutory fee, if applicable.” Since you are not asking for a copy, there is no “direct costs of duplication” and the case law is clear that, under the PRA, the County cannot charge for “staff time involved in searching [for] the records, reviewing records for information exempt from disclosure …, [or] deleting such exempt information.” North County Parents Organization for Children with Special Needs v. Department of Education, 23 Cal. App. 4th 144 (1994).