The proposal to charge $50/hour to fulfill public records requests was rejected Tuesday by Riverside, CA, county supervisors.
County supervisors reject $50 hourly fee for public records | The Desert Sun | MyDesert.com.
The fee, which would have offset the labor costs of large, complex document requests, was to be levied on top of already established copying fees
This is a way to try and recoup taxpayer dollars spent on extensive requests that take people away from their other duties,” said county public information officer Ray Smith, who drafted the proposal told the Riverside Press-Enterprise on Monday.
However, open government advocates questioned the legality of the purposed fee, as
“If you have no idea what the access is going to cost, then I think you are going to be hesitant to even make a request,” said Terry Francke, general counsel of Californians Aware, an open-government advocacy group.
“If the county does approve this, we would think seriously about filing suit challenging it,” Francke said.
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RIVERSIDE COUNTY: Officials propose public records fee