Hoosier State Press Association - The Indiana Publisher
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/53019
Page 4 January 19, 2012 Politicians question what you pay for records P ressure is building from state and local govern- ments for a way to recoup costs from voluminous records requests. Even legislators who have authored Hoosier State Press Association's attempts to add teeth to the Open Door Law and Access to Public Records Act are sympathetic to costs for government agencies when the request requires hours of staff time to research, review, possibly redact, and copy hundreds of pages of public records. Speaker of the House Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, and Sen. Beverly Gard, R-Greenfield, both friends of public access, don't deny that citizens have the right to inspect or obtain copies of the records; but they believe the requester needs to cover more of the costs than 10 cent a page for copies. Per a request by Bosma, HSPA reviewed the public records laws of the 50 other states to survey how volumi- nous requests are handled in respect to the ability of a public agency to recoup some of the costs involved. As best HSPA can tell, 27 states allow a fee for search- ing for records. Some allow the fee for all records requests, which would be contrary to the Indiana legislature's declara- tion that providing citizens with government records "is an essential function of a rep- resentative government and an integral part of the rou- tine duties of public officials and employees." In other words, it's part of the job that taxpayers expect to be done. Sixteen states have drawn lines where lawmakers think the fulfillment of a records request goes beyond the norm and merits the requester bearing a greater share of the cost. There are different ap proaches among the 16 states, and HSPA may be called upon to make a recom- mendation about the best option or sit on the sideline while others decide. Hopefully, no decision will be rushed through during the present short session. Here are some records request approaches used HSPA Hotline The following questions came from the Perry County News (Tell City), the city of Indianapolis, the Vevay Reveille-Enterprise and the Switzerland County Democrat (Vevay): Q A Is there a problem with including the words "no pets" in a rental property advertisement? The Indiana Civil Rights Commission looks at the words "no pets" as poten- tially discriminating against people with disabilities because they might use a ser- vice animal to help with tasks. The Civil Rights Commis- sion recommends newspapers use "service animals only" as a substitute for "no pets." This protects the disabled from discrimination and protects both the landlord and the newspaper from pos- sible liability under the Fair Housing Act. The client might complain over the additional cost of one word in the classified ad, but that's a lot less expensive than a Fair Housing Act com- plaint settlement. also uses it for work-related calls, would that subject the phone records to the Access to Public Records Act? that a public agency creates, receives, retains, maintains or files. In this scenario, the pub- Q A lic agency doesn't touch the records but merely compen- sates the employee for the The Access to Public Records Act defines public records as those If the city gives an employee a stipend to help cover the cost of a private cell phone because the employee phone usage. I don't think the private phone records would fall under the access act. The only possibility for obtaining records would be if the employee effectively made the cell phone his or her busi- ness phone for the govern- ment unit. In a Texas case, a state leg- islator printed business cards with her cell phone listed as the contact number for con- stituents. A judge ruled that since the legislator was advertising her personal number as the offi- cial number for her legislative office, that number and its records were subject to Texas' public records law. Q A Q A Is a school board member's participa- tion limited if he participates in the meeting by telephone rather than in person? A member of the governing body of a public agency can participate in a meeting via telephone under IC 5-14-1.5-3(d) with some restrictions. The telephone participant cannot be counted toward the quorum to hold the meeting and cannot cast a vote in a final action, unless the agency has statutory authority that allows for it. We printed a Henry Circuit Court No. 3 item about a boy sentenced to pay a fine for unlaw- ful possession of tobacco. The boy apparently was 15. Do we have any liability for printing the court item? The family is upset. I'm assuming the information was obtained lawfully – either through a court record you were allowed to inspect or copy or through attendance of a court hearing open to the public. In either case, there would be no prohibition or liability for reporting on the actions of a public agency, in this case the court. So legally you're fine. Moving forward, the news- paper may want to consider a policy on when minors subject to law enforcement or the courts should be identified in the newspaper. Your policy may differ from what the law would allow. Consider this scenario: The police give you the name of a juvenile suspect held for what would be several misde- meanors and one felony if the crime had been committed by an adult. You print the child's name. But then the prosecutor reviews the case and finds that some of the charges were added by an angry police offi- cer who had to chase down the kid and got his uniform dirty. The prosecutor decides to bring the case before the juve- nile court on a petition alleg- ing juvenile delinquency for what would be a misdemeanor if committed by an adult. In that case, the judge has discretion to keep the hear- ings closed. This means the newspaper may not be able to follow whether the child is exoner- ated or not or even report that the prosecutor reduced the charges. If that occurs, the newspa- per has identified the minor but can't follow up on the case's resolution. Contact Steve Key, HSPA executive director and general counsel, with media law ques- tions at skey@hspa.com or (317) 624-4427. Fayetteville Observer's Platinum TV ad package exceeded revenue goal in less than a week! Key Points By Steve Key throughout the United States: Search time threshold • Alaska allows a fee for any requester if accumulated searches exceed five hours in any month. The fee would be applied to search time over that threshold. It cov- ers personnel costs for the search (salary and benefits). Previewing records for wheth- er they are disclosable can't be added to the charge. • Georgia gives the request- er the first 15 minutes of search time free, but then municipalities can charge an hourly rate of the lowest-paid employee with skills to per- form the search. They can't charge for an attorney's time to review records. • Hawaii allows a fee of $2.50 for each 15 minutes of search and $5 for 15 minutes of review and segregation of materials, but government units waive the first $30. • Maine allows not more than $10 an hour after the first hour; this includes review and redaction time. • Maryland allows a charge for costs to locate, review and redact, but the first two hours are free. • North Dakota permits a charge up to $25 an hour after the first hour. • Rhode Island allows an hourly fee capped at $15 an hour with the first hour free. • Tennessee allows a labor charge for locating, retriev- ing, reviewing, redacting and reproducing at the rate of the employee researching, but the first hour is free. • Wisconsin can charge direct costs of locating records if the search cost exceeds $50. Pages threshold • Idaho allows a charge for actual labor for searching and copying if the request is for more than 100 pages or the request requires redaction or labor exceeds two hours. • Texas allows a charge for Register Continued from Page 1 The Annual Meetings will include information on Media $ales Basics, a web- based advertising training program available free for HSPA-member newspapers in 2012. Publishers should plan to invite their state represen- tatives and senators to the Legislative Luncheon on Thursday, Feb. 16, when HSPA presents the Frank O'Bannon Sunshine Award. HSPA will provide invita- tions for newspapers to send lawmakers. The Distinguished Service Award honoree will receive the traditional win- ner's cup at the Governor's Reception on Feb. 16. State Attorney General Greg Zoeller will speak. Session speaker Chris Lee, executive vice presi- dent and publisher for the Deseret News (Salt Lake City), will address upheav- als in consumption, costs and culture of the news industry on Feb. 17. His presentation also will include a focus on ideas for cost reductions. Lee, a Harvard Business School graduate with a master's degree in business administration, previously was chairman and chief executive officer at Herit- labor, overhead and materials if the records are more than 50 pages. 'Extensive' search • Florida allows a charge for an employee's salary and ben- efits for an "extensive" search. • Michigan allows an hourly rate of the lowest-paid employee capable of perform- ing the search but only if fail- ure to charge the fee would result in unreasonably high costs to the public body. • North Carolina allows a reasonable charge based on actual costs if extensive clerical or supervisory time is required. • Oklahoma can charge a direct cost of searching if it clearly causes excessive dis- ruption to the essential func- tions of the public agency. Commercial requests • Kentucky allows search fees if the request is for com- mercial uses. HSPA's conclusion: Pick your poison. Steve Key is executive director and general counsel for HSPA. age Makers, a marketer of web-to-print personalized photo products. Other speakers include Daniel Byron of Indian- apolis law firm Bingham Greenebaum Doll, who will address libel; Tonda Rush, chief executive officer of the National Newspaper Association, who will speak via Skype about postal changes affecting newspa- pers; and Stephen Key, HSPA executive director and general counsel, who will update publishers on state legislative issues affecting newspapers. Indiana publishers in - cluding Henry Bird (CNHI), Karen Crotchfelt (Star Media), Brandon Erlacher (The Elkhart Truth) and Terry Hous holder (KPC Media Group) will take part in a panel discussion on actions they plan to take in the next five to 10 years to position their papers for greater success. Roundtable sessions designed to facilitate idea sharing will culminate in an iPad 2 giveaway for the person with the best idea. Facilitators will be Indiana publishers Patrick Lanman (Vevay News- papers Inc.), Randy List (Rust Communications), Jon O'Bannon (O'Bannon Publishing Co. Inc.), Bird and Tina West (The Cour- ier-Times in New Castle). Without publishing anything new, the Fayetteville Observer ad package created new, year-long revenue in just one week! Contact Advantage Newspaper Consultants today to learn more about creating NEW annual revenue with your existing core products. Ask us about our digital editions! 910-323-0349 | info@newspaperconsultants.com | www.newspaperconsultants.com