CalAware Sues District on Records Copy Charges

Californians Aware (CalAware) filed a lawsuit in Contra Costa County Superior Court today, seeking an order prohibiting the Contra Costa Community College District from continuing its violation of the California Public Records Act (CPRA) by charging a fee for copies of district records that is well above the “direct cost of duplication,” the maximum fee the CPRA allows.

CalAware recently discovered that the district’s records policy allows it to charge copy requesters 25¢ per page, plus $40 per hour for staff time in compiling the records.  When CalAware received a bill of $80 for 80 pages it had requested, the bill included $60 for 1½ hours of staff time. When faced with CalAware’s complaint that the fee was too high, Vice Chancellor Kindred Murillo refused to reduce it, replying that the fee was fixed by district “business procedure.”

 But case law interpreting the CPRA has concluded that the recoverable "direct cost of duplication" is “the cost of running the copy machine, and conceivably also the expense of the person operating it, but does not include the ancillary tasks necessarily associated with the retrieval, inspection and handling of the file from which the copy is extracted.” (North County Parents Organization v. Dept. of Education, 23 Cal.App.4^th 144 (1994).

 And in creating its own “Guidelines for Access to Public Records,” the California Attorney General’s Office determined that the Department of Justice’s direct cost of duplication was 10¢ per page, which, the department concluded, must “not include the staff person’s time in researching, retrieving, redacting and mailing the record.”

 Richard McKee, CalAware's Vice President/Open Government Compliance, said, "Excessively high copy fees such as those charged by this district serve to discourage requests for public records, contrary to the legislature’s declaration that 'access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in the state.'"

Comments

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=689913316]

Along this same vein, the prisoners are charged 30 cents per copy to fight their often HUGE cases. That is equivalent to roughly three hours of labor for just one copy. This high copy fee is one of the many ways that the State denies court access to indigent inmates. And of course, the court almost always wants everything submitted in triplicate. Imagine working three hours, IF you have a job, in order to buy ONE copy. Denial of court access and of due process is a daily procedure. What do these bureaucrats think that they are doing in our names?

[Ed Dunn]

Our son was employed, at a large California University. He held a management position in the university's very large graphics facility.

The graphics department, owned and operated its own copier program through-out the campus. Our son said the copier program was very profitable for them. They made money at ONE CENT per copy, with their machines. I don't think they charged that low price, but their price wasn't high.

It appears that many of our small local governments are "Bandits," when it comes to copies.

Congratulations to Calaware