Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature had just sealed a $96.3 billion state budget last year when an outcry erupted over a provision that allowed local governments to deny requests for public documents because the state wouldn't reimburse them.
[…]
Read More… from Californians to vote on cost of public records
The state Supreme Court has ruled that government agencies can charge an hourly fee for locating public documents requested under the West Virginia Freedom of Information Act. The court ruled 4-1 in a decision released Thursday.
The justices overturned a Kanawha County circuit judge’s ruling that said the city of Nitro didn’t have the authority to enact an ordinance to establish an hourly search fee for documents. The circuit judge had concluded the city could only charge for the cost of copying the documents, but the Supreme Court disagreed.
[…]
Read More… from W.Va. Supreme Court allows fee for FOIA records searches
From The Bulletin: Four years ago, the Attorney General’s right-hand man on all issues dealing with government transparency created a comprehensive list of exemptions to the state’s public records laws.
He found more than 400.
[…]
Read More… from Push for transparency idles – Oregon’s public records law still full of exemptions
From News-Gazette.com: City Attorney Fred Stavins said that, even if they are public records, deleted text messages are impossible to recover, and the city's legal department provided The News-Gazette with its research to prove it.
In December 2012, city officials called around to various cellphone providers to determine how long those records are retained in the cell company's files.
[. . .]
AT&T: No records are kept of customers' text messages — that data can only be accessed on a customer's phone.
[…]
Read More… from Cellphone companies say they don’t save text messages
From Des Moines Register: The Iowa Department of Public Safety now says it will not charge The Des Moines Register the overtime rate for an employee to gather data in response to a public records request.
The decision came a day after the newspaper filed three complaints with the Iowa Public Information Board over record costs and access issues involving the departments of Public Safety and Human Services.
[…]
Read More… from Iowa Department of Public Safety reduces charge for public records
From The Daily Progress: A shift to electronic filing for financial disclosure forms for 25,000 state workers and elected officials means it could cost the public dramatically more to get the records.
Searching 2008 to 2011 disclosure records for 525 Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control employees, for example, cost The Daily Progress nothing. The price tag for accessing the same documents for 2012 would have been $1,200, according to state officials.
[…]
Read More… from Change to electronic recordkeeping adds cost to FOIA requests
From the Blog of Legal Times: Lawyers for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the digital library JSTOR continue to press their fight to intervene in a public records lawsuit to assert control over the scope of information the government is planning to release about the late Aaron Swartz.
[…]
Read More… from MIT, library urge intervention in public records suit
From Houston Chronicle: Kentucky child safety officials have testified that their main reason for redacting information in files of children who have been severely abused or neglected is to protect the privacy of families involved.
Department of Community Based Services Teresa James said protecting the privacy of the families helps them to heal and rebuild.
[…]
Read More… from Kentucky child safety officials defend redacting child abuse records
From The Republic: The University of Missouri has prevailed in a public records lawsuit filed by an education advocacy group that sought access to professors' copies of course outlines.
[…]
Read More… from U. of Missouri prevails in public records lawsuit over course outlines
Opinion from the Logan Banner:
When West Virginia House Minority Leader Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha, spoke at the West Virginia Press Association’s annual legislative breakfast last week he said West Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act law needed to be more open to allow citizens and journalists even more access to documents from public bodies.
[…]
