A win for FOIA

You may have missed it, but county staff last night said that they will have to make a change to any flat fee charge for public records because it does not follow the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act. For who knows how long, some county departments have charged a flat fee of at least $25 to access public records, instead of charging the actual cost of getting the document. Now, this doesn’t mean that county staff won’t say it actually costs $100 to get that document, but for right now, they have come to learn that flat fees are illegal. For example, the county charged a $25 flat fee to see a building plan. That’s not legal, according to FOIA. This has put a smile on my face

Post tags: FOIA

Permalink: http://news.fredericksburg.com/spotsygovt/2009/12/09/a-win-for-foia/

caroldarby

You go Dan! I guess that will teach those County folks not to accost you anymore! I never paid a $25 fee BUT I do remember of complaining to the Board of Supervisors that the $1 per page was outrageous since the going rate at that time was about 10 cents per page. They call it a “document fee”; I called it “highway robbery.”
dantelvock

CD, no one was rude to me. That was a joke and I suppose jokes are tough to catch on here. That is true, a $1 fee per copy is not in spirit with the FOIA.

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A win for FOIA