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Dennis A. Byrd, FOIArkansas Project

A legislative proposal that would set the cost for photocopies of public documents may make a third appearance in 2001.

FOIArkansas----------------Unlocking the public's business

A 1997 bill introduced in the House by Rep. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, would have put the rate public agencies could charge for copies at 10 cents per page, but her proposal failed to get out of committee. In 1999, Madison introduced the bill again, but did not attempt a committee vote.

The only guidance offered on photocopy charges is a 1980s opinion by then-Attorney General Steve Clark, who said 25 cents per page was not unreasonable.

Charges vary from office to office.

Bob Fisher, ombudsman in the attorney general’s office, believes the cost should be an agency’s actual reproduction cost. He says agencies should not make money at the expense of taxpayers who pay the salaries of public employees and pay for the copying machines.

Copy machines in public offices were rare when the FOI Act was passed in 1967, so, although “copying” is mentioned twice in the law, there is no reference to photocopies.

Fisher, who fields many of the FOI-related questions in the AG’s office, says many officials often make photocopies or allow the public to use the office copier, but he says there is no expressed requirement for them to do that.

A citizen conceivably could bring in his own copier, could take notes or could copy documents by using a camera or some other device, he said.

The FOIArkansas Project’s six-part survey in August revealed that charges for copies of records ranged from free to $1 per page. In the most unusual case, a county clerk cashed a $2 check sent by mail for a copy of a campaign contribution report, sent 29 pages of documents by return mail (only four of which were sought), then sent a bill for $27.

The citizen who made the request returned 25 pages and sent another $2 check to pay for the four pages.

Madison, who is in her third term and cannot seek re-election under the state’s term limits law, said she was surprised at the resistance her bill met in 1997.

She said county clerks were the most resistant. Some told the committee they would no longer make copies of public records if they could charge only 10 cents per copy, she recalled.

Rep. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, said he may take over the issue in 2001, if he is re-elected.

One of the problems he expects to face is from the same county clerks who helped squelch Madison’s bill in 1997.

Files said he has been told by fellow lawmakers that clerks in rural counties make money on copying charges and did not want to give up that income.

“At the very minimum, we need to do it where it breaks even,” Files said. He also added the same argument that Fisher used: “Your tax dollars are already paying for the copier and for someone to work there.”