Public records access — Legislators hope to arrive at a fix for fees

RIVERTON — In Shoshoni, Mayor Joel Highsmith invited the journalist to sit down at the city clerk’s desk and use her computer to scan through his email account. There were 265 emails to peruse, so to save time and afford the chance for a chat, he went searching for a thumb drive, had a staff member download the emails, and handed off the data free of charge.

Just down the road, Fremont County School District #24 was processing a similar public records request from The Ranger. But this time, there was a price tag.

Superintendent Bruce Thoren estimated it would take “a couple thousand” dollars to inspect the data; FCSD#24 Attorney Scott Kolpitcke later offered a discount – probably around $900 to look at the government records.

The audit of local government fees for data conducted last year by this newspaper for Sunshine Week highlighted an issue in Wyoming related to government transparency: Public records come with a price tag, and there’s no uniformity required by law limiting how expensive they might be.

Wyoming Public Records Ombudsman Darlena Potter recalled such a records request that was hindered by a $6,000 fee attached.

Over the last year, WyoToday Media has worked with local legislators on finding a solution, one that both provides for more access to local public records while still allowing for governments to recoup funds when they receive huge, for-profit data requests that consume many hours of staff time to fill.

Now, the Elections, Corporations and Political Subdivisions Legislative Committee has agreed to study the Public Records Act as an interim topic; members will examine the issue between now and the next legislative session to identify ways to improve transparency in the Cowboy State.

Court case ushers in transparency tax

It didn’t always cost to inspect public records. For years, Wyoming, like many other states around the country, allowed people to inspect records for free – only taking away paper reproductions had a fee. But in the 2010s, that changed.

In 2016, a case that had been wending its way through the courts for several years reached the Wyoming Supreme Court.

It ruled that government entities could charge for staff time to retrieve electronic records, noting that it is often difficult to produce electronic records for inspection without reproducing them.

Therefore, the court held, governments could charge a “reasonable fee” for the efforts associated with this reproduction.

That leaves the question: What’s a reasonable fee, and who gets to decide?

For almost a decade, government officials have been able to charge fees for records at basically whatever rate they please.

Although Wyoming has since created the position of ombudsman to mediate disputes between governments and requesters, because there’s nothing in law or case law defining what reasonable means, the ombudsman has little grounds on which to rule that fees are or are not in compliance.

“It seems there are government entities that are using the so-called cost … to discourage government data requests,” Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, observed. “Those kinds of things are discouraging to me, and tell me we still have problems.”

Legislators step in

Both Case and Rep. Pepper Ottman, R-Riverton, brought forward the issue as an interim topic, which has been officially taken up by the Elections, Corporations and Political Subdivisions Committee, for which Case serves as co-chair.

It means that, with the blessing of the legislature’s Management Council, they’ll study the statute and potentially come up with a fix that can be offered as a bill during the next legislative session.

“Over the last few years we’ve seen a growth of citizen participation, and the knowledge of how the system works and how they can utilize FOIAs [records requests] for their cities and their towns to see what’s going on,” said Ottman. “To have them thwarted by astronomical charges to prohibit, or discourage [that participation] is not good.”

Sen. Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, the second-most powerful lawmaker in the Senate serving as vice president, said in an interview that ensuring there’s uniformity in how fees for government records are assessed is critical.

Without statutory guidelines for such fees, he said, price tags can be used as a deterrent by government employees who don’t want the public to keep an eye on government business.

He agreed: The corporations committee is a great place to start in finding a statutory fix.

Historically, the Elections, Corporations, and Political Subdivisions has taken point on matters of public records and government transparency law, Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, pointed out. “The Senate corporations committee is very strong, and I think that’s a good place for [the topic of fees for government data],” Larsen added.

Big requests, big bills

Finding a solution that works might not be an easy task. There are times when governments and government agencies will be hit with large requests from out-of-state and/or which are commercial in nature.

For example, Gov. Mark Gordon described a recent situation: A firm from New Jersey requested a large amount of information about unclaimed property from the state of Wyoming — hundreds if not thousands of documents it received for free.

Then, it took that information and started calling Wyoming residents, offering to sell it to them.

“That puts pressure to have the cost be commensurate … How do you strike the balance?” Larsen said, is an important question for the committee to weigh.

One option, he suggested, could be to create a tiered approach, with different pricing for different amounts or levels of data.

WyoToday Media has studied how fees are assessed for government records in all 50 states. Many approach the issue the same way Wyoming did for decades: When requesters don’t ask for copies, but simply look at records, they’re not assessed a fee.

But these days, no typewriters are clacking away in government offices; nearly every government record these days is held in electronic format, and some states have adjusted their statutes to allow fees to be charged for those records.

How those fees are controlled varies.

Some states offer a certain number of hours of staff time for free with any request – for example, a person who makes a request in Nebraska that takes less than four hours for staff members to provide isn’t charged anything.

However, the committee decides to navigate reining in costs, Ottman stressed that it’s an important question to answer in statute.

“This has to be uniform,” she said of government fees for data, “and taken into consideration that this is a right – to get this information.”

“From the public side, when people do requests they would hope that the access to those would be prompt … and would be affordable,” Larsen added.

Some people who have contacted him, Case said, seem to feel that Wyoming’s open meetings and public records laws need complete overhauling, to be redone and modeled after another state’s.

He thinks there may be room to craft and refine Wyoming’s existing laws to offer clearer guidelines, though.

“I’m hoping we can just improve Wyoming’s law by providing more clarity,” he commented. “The government exists to serve the people. Elected office and all the acts of governance in a democracy is driven from the bottom up.”

Case said that he and his co-chair, Rep. Christopher Knapp, R-Gillette, have put together their list of interim topics that the committee has decided to advance for the coming year. That letter is or will soon be sent off to the Management Council, which is the body that signs off on all interim topics.

This story was published on March 22, 2025.