Access to public records can sometimes cost thousands
By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer
Copying and search fees assessed by government agencies can be an obstacle to obtaining what are clearly public records.
If you need help getting public records or finding out about your right to attend a closed-door meeting, visit the.honoluluadvertiser.com/publicsunshine. We've assembled useful links to the state and federal information laws and legal opinions. You can also find a link to a federal information request letter generator that will help you create a written request for records.
Patricia Tummons, editor of the monthly newsletter Environment Hawai'i who frequently seeks public information relating to environmental issues, asked the state Department of Agriculture last year for the records on its plans to build a fruit irradiation facility at an unspecified location in Hawai'i.
Tools to get info
The department told Tummons she would have to pay $4,270 to cover the state's costs in reviewing the records and removing confidential material from them. She appealed the decision to the state Office of Information Practices.
After OIP spoke to the agriculture department, it lowered the fee to $190. OIP was "able to clarify for us what a public record is," the department said in a letter to the information practices agency.
The "$190 looks cheap compared to $4,270, but it's still quite a bit of money," Tummons said.
"I guess I'll pay it, but what if I was just someone off the street who wanted this information? Would I have that kind of money and would I want to spend it?"
Demanding high fees to prevent the release of records does not happen often, but watchdog groups know it's a possibility, and "they are fearful of it," said state Sen. Les Ihara, D-9th (Kapahulu, Kaimuki, Palolo).
Ihara introduced a bill this legislative session that would give OIP the authority to waive copying fees that it deems excessive.
"We want to give them the final veto power over fees so that if and when those situations come about, they can deal with them," Ihara said.
Ihara would also like to make the media exempt from these fees, as long as a news outlet makes an attempt to publish a related story, he said.
Converting government records to electronic and digital formats was supposed to make public access to the records cheaper, but it can also produce surprising price tags.
When Advertiser reporter Mike Leidemann asked the state Transportation Department for access to data it compiles on traffic accidents around the state, he was told it could be "easily" done but would cost $20,000 in computer programming fees to remove confidential information from the files.
That was after the state first said all the data was confidential. OIP then issued a preliminary opinion saying that the data should be made public.
The cost issue is unresolved and the records have not been released.
Reach Jim Dooley at 535-2447 or jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com. Advertiser staff writer Mike Gordon contributed to this report.
