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Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Ind. Law - Challenge to $1-per-page fee for printouts of county recorder's digital records

"Recorders seek changes in law" is the headline to a story today in the Louisville Courier Journal by Alex Davis. The story begins:

A group that represents Indiana's 92 county recorders is pushing for changes in a state law after a New Albany businessman's claim that some fees being charged are illegal.

Christopher Mason of Southern Indiana Abstract Co. filed a complaint about the fees Dec. 1 with the Indiana Public Access Counselor, who deals with questions about open-records matters.

The complaint focuses on Clark County, and Mason contends that there is no state law to support a $1-per-page fee for printouts of digital records.

Those printouts now make up the bulk of the county's $80,000 in annual copying revenue. But Indiana's law describing the fees refers only to documents produced by a "photographic process" -- and not by modern computer printers.

Clark County Recorder Shirley Nolot said she temporarily suspended the $1 fee after a Jan. 3 opinion by the public access counselor that validated parts of Mason's complaint.

Although the opinion is advisory, it is being taken seriously by the Indiana Recorder's Association. Terri Rethlake, the group's vice president, said the association is working through a lobbyist to have the General Assembly pass legislation that would update the law that covers recorders' fees.

Mason is exploiting a "loophole" in the current law, Rethlake said, and it eventually could put at risk hundreds of thousands of dollars in fee revenue collected statewide.

Apparently no office staff is involved in making these printouts, the customers look up the items on the recorders computers and then print them out. The charge is for the number of pages printed:
Nolot said Mason's complaint came after she had a counting machine installed on the printers in her office late last year. Before the counters were introduced, she said she operated on an honor system under which customers simply paid her what they felt they owed. * * *

Leah Poindexter, part owner of SouthEastern Indiana Title Co. in Jeffersonville, said she believes the fees charged by recorders are unfair because the money is used to subsidize government operations that are unrelated to the cost of the documents.

"The library is 10 cents a copy," said Poindexter, whose firm runs about $200 a month in copies in Clark County alone. "Why am I paying for the salary of the employees up there, where I'm doing the work myself?"

Here is the January 3, 2006 opinion of the Public Access Counselor.

A check of the current cite list shows there are no 2006 bills amending IC 36-2-7-10 or 36-2-11-16.

On another matter. I noticed, when looking on the Public Access Counselor's website, that there appear to be no 2006 PAC Opinions. However, if you look at the 2005 list, you will find that "05-FC-243; Alleged Violation of the Access to Public Records Act by the Clark County Recorder's Office," the opinion at issue here, is dated Jan. 3, 2006, and is the first 0f currently 21 opinions that have been issued thus far in 2006. As to why each is numbered beginning with "05-", my guess would be that it is because the complaint was filed in 2005.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 7, 2006 06:37 AM
Posted to Indiana Law