Charge fair fees for public records

Transparency in government is critical to maintain trust between public officials and the people who elect them.

Therefore, we are pleased the Wyoming State Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions Committee has selected government transparency as one of its interim topics and began addressing the issue by inviting the public to give input at its meeting last week.

Wyoming law already acknowledges public records belong to the people, and government entities are allowed to set reasonable fees for the work of providing access to those records. But what is a reasonable fee?

Fees for providing access vary widely across the state and even in individual counties. Some government agencies provide access to public records free of charge. Other agencies charge considerable sums. Wyoming school districts can pass along attorney fees, which can amount to hundreds of dollars per hour.

Nobody should expect government agencies to provide all records for free on the taxpayers’ dollar, government employees have regular duties to perform.

Perhaps the starting point for the joint legislative committee to consider during the interim session is to arrive at a recommendation for standardization of fees.

While there is certainly more work to be done to provide transparency in government, a bill to provide standard rates would be a positive first step.

Committee co-chairman Sen. Cale Case (R-Lander) said taking up the issue during the interim is important because it’s the only real time when the public can interact directly with legislators and give input into bills under consideration.

The Mountain States Policy Center, an independent research agency, has several ideas to strengthen the Wyoming Public Records Act, which the committee should consider.

Those suggestions include giving equal treatment to all requesters and having a set fee schedule in statute for every response.

In addition, the policy center suggests agencies process large record requests in installments and cancel them if the fee is not paid following the first installment. Those are common-sense suggestions that could easily be incorporated.

Passing a stronger public records act and keeping pressure on government officials to comply with its provisions will go a long way toward ensuring trust in our government.

It’s your government. Those are your elected officials and public records belong to the people.

It should absolutely be your right to have convenient and reasonably priced access to public records in Wyoming.