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From: Patrick Mulry
Date: 2/21/98
Time: 6:06:11 PM
Remote Name: 38.217.62.132
Do you agree with the State's general policy to recover costs for information provided for open records requests?
Yes, to the extent that the State incurs such costs. It is easier to put a price on photocopies, as there is a physical element that is being transfered from the State to the party requesting the information, namely, paper and toner, and there is an obvious element included in that pricing to cover maintenance costs for the photocopiers, and an element to cover the manpower required to actually do the copying. However, such pricing has historically proved more elusive in the Internet domain. Although the State will surely incur some costs in the implementation of a Internet-based information retrieval system (i.e. searchable databases on websites), such as the manpower to install and maintin those databases, equipment costs, and the fees to the utility companies for electricity to run an Internet server and the costs for the internet hookup, the costs will be more difficult to assess on a case-by-case basis. I suggest that the State handle this pricing issue by averaging the cost of maintaining such data on the Internet by increasing filing fees on all cases. This would likely raise filing fees yet another dollar or two, but would allow for all cases filed in our State to be found by practicioners and others.