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Re: electronic copies of public records



In many states, if a public record exists in electronic form one _must_ provide it in electronic form if asked.  Only reasonable as the public paid to produce it in electronic form in the first place.  

On the other hand, if a record does not exist in electronic form one does not usually have any obligation to transfer it to an electronic format just because someone would like it that way.  The latter context is the one in which a fee would be reasonable - one is providing a direct service to a particular customer the costs of which only arise because of the request.  

In providing access to records that are already in electronic form one is doing no more than fulfilling one's obligation to provide for the inspection of public records.  One should note that in cost terms it is much more efficient to email someone a copy of a record than to have that person come into the office and take up staff and equipment time to view the record there.  Fulfilling a request by email _saves_ money, so it is hardly justifiable to try to charge a fee.  One would never think of charging a fee to simply inspect public records in the office, and if one did, could certainly not get away with doing so.  



R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram, C.A. 
Archives and Records Administrator
Office of the City Clerk
City Archives and Records Division 
240 Water St
Henderson, NV 89015 

702-568-8334

jai@gty.ci.henderson.nv.us



>>> "Kerssen, Julie" <Julie.Kerssen@METROKC.GOV> 07/25/01 09:30AM >>>
I work for the county government in Seattle, where we are currently
grappling with the question of what to do when a citizen requests an
electronic copy of a public record.  We need to create a policy to deal with
these requests and are wondering if anyone else has thought about this.  As
I see it, there are two main issues:

First, should we send citizens copies of public records via email if they
request it?  The main concern we can see with this is security -- if a
member of the public has an electronic copy of a document, it would be very
easy for them to make changes to it, perhaps maliciously, and then claim it
was an original.  We could send read-only copies, but it still wouldn't be
too difficult for someone to create an edited document from it.  Of course,
people can make forgeries from photocopied documents as well, but sending
them electronically just makes it that much easier.  If we determine this is
a significant issue, we could conceivably write the policy to state that
only paper copies of documents will be given to citizens.  However, we then
have to justify this to the public, and since the convenience of having
something emailed to you beats coming into the office in person, people may
not be too happy about it.

Second, if we do decide to go ahead and email public records, we need to
decide if and how much we will charge for the service.  Our fear (perhaps
unjustified) about making the service free is that we will be completely
flooded with requests for public records.  By law, we are only allowed to
charge a "reasonable" fee for copies, and cannot charge for labor (since the
public is already paying our salaries).  We charge 15 cents per page for
photocopies, but that charge is justified by use of paper and toner, wear
and tear on the copier, etc.  With electronic copies, there are no materials
to charge for, and it doesn't seem right to charge for depreciation of the
computer since it doesn't wear out with use like a copier does.  My
supervisor suggested charging for computer time, meaning that while the
computer was completing the request, it wouldn't be doing other work.  If we
do charge, it seems like we should do a flat per-document fee, since it's no
harder to email a 100-page document than a 1-page document.  But again, if
we do establish a fee, we need to be able to justify the cost.

SO -- are any other public agencies dealing with this topic?  Do you email
documents?  Do you charge for the service?  Are there other issues we
haven't considered?  Any thoughts (or established policies) will be greatly
appreciated!  Thank you -

Julie Kerssen
King County, WA
http://www.metrokc.gov/recelec/archives/ 

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