Published: June 21, 2008 01:38 am      

Clarksville drops 25 cent public record charge

By DAVID A. MANN

david.mann@newsandtribune.com

Tom DeArk coughed up a couple of quarters last summer when the Clarksville Town Council passed an ordinance that put a 25-cent-per-page charge on copies of public documents.

The first thing he paid for was a copy of the very ordinance that put the charge in place.

DeArk, a self-described “policy wonk” and constant requester of town records, considered the fee excessive, arguing that state law did not allow Clarksville to factor in labor and overhead costs.

The Indiana public access counselor’s disagreed, saying in her formal opinion that state law had been recently changed and that the town was allowed to factor in the costs.

So, the 25-cent charge stood. That was until earlier this week, when the town council revised its ordinance to make it a 10-cent-per-page fee. The council did so in order to conform with a new state law, which DeArk had worked behind the scenes on changing.

“About a month before the (state legislative) session started I made contact with Steve Stemler, (D-Jeffersonville),” DeArk said.

When the language that forbade the town from factoring overhead costs into copy fees was removed from the state law, it was done so inadvertently, he explained. DeArk rallied state legislators to fix the law.

“He was kind enough to think that it had merit, to sponsor it in the short session,” DeArk said.

The short legislative lasted from January through March. During the short session, legislators are only allowed to introduce five bills each. Stemler said he thought making public records as accessible as possible was a positive step to take.

“It’s better for open government,” he said. “I thought this was a good public-policy measure, so I thought it was important even in the short session.”

The bill went through the Indiana House and the Senate, passing each unanimously.

Clarksville changed its ordinance during their regular meeting Monday night.

Council Vice President Gregg Isgrigg, filling in while president Paul Kraft recovering from knee surgery, said the change doesn’t bother him at all.

“Ten cents a copy is 10 cents a copy,” he said, “and if the state law says that’s what we got to do, then that’s what we got to do.”

How to pay for it

Town officials are still discussing exactly how to administer the charge. Up until now, it’s been the town’s policy to charge a quarter for every page, paid at the time of the request.

However, Clerk-Treasurer Gary Hall said he would like to institute a system in which requesters would not be charged per copy, but rather would run a tab. After requesting $10 worth of documents, they would be sent a bill.

Hall’s office has most of the town’s records.

However, DeArk has challenged that idea as well, saying that in order to do so the town would have to get the name and address of people who request documents. He believes that would be against state open-records law.

“All I was trying to do was be a little more efficient and not have the clerks running around with money changers on their belts,” Hall said.

Hall’s idea is on hold right now, until he gets some clarification from the public access counselor’s office.

The alternative may be a library-style copy machine, in which residents can insert coins in order to make copies, Hall said.

He would not comment on whether or not the copy ordinance is a good thing for the town, noting that it was the council’s decision and that he’s not a policy-maker.

DeArk believes charging for copies has cost the town more than it’s made, because clerks now have to handle cash and keep records and receipts of how much has been taken in.