A governmental body shall provide a copy of public information without charge or at a reduced charge if the governmental body determines that waiver or reduction of the charge is in the public interest because providing the copy of the information primarily benefits the general public. [Section 552.267]

The Public Information Act encourages governmental bodies to provide responses to public information requests in the least expensive means available.

Labor charges of $15 per hour to locate, compile and reproduce information are applicable if:

Request for standard paper copies	Only if (1) there are more than 50 pages of copies or (2) the information is kept in two or more separate buildings or in remote storage
Paper copies must be scanned to electronic format	Only if (1) there are more than 50 pages of copies or (2) the information is kept in two or more separate buildings or in remote storage
E-mail messages	Only if there are more than 50 pages of e-mail
Request for copies of nonstandard documents (e.g., oversized paper, DVD, or VHS tape)	Yes
Request to inspect paper documents	For a governmental body with more than 15 employees, only if (1) it takes the governmental body more than 5 hours to prepare the information and (2) the requested information is more than 6 years old or it would fill 6 or more archival boxes
Request to inspect electronic information	Only for programming @ $28.50 per hour or manipulation of data @ $15 per hour (Programming is defined as writing a new program. Querying an existing database is not considered programming)

Other Charges

Do charges for materials apply to standard paper copies? (Always provide responsive information electronically unless requestor insists on paper copies.)

Depends on number of copies: Under 50 copies = $.00 Over 50 copies = $.10 per page

Do charges for materials apply to CD’s? A charge of $1.00 may apply if the CD will be going to the requestor. However, not if the CD is only for the purpose of transferring the information to the Open Records Office.

Are overhead charges applicable? If labor charges apply, you may charge 20% of the total labor charge. Overhead charges are not applicable to programming.

Are computer resource charges applicable?

Mainframe $10.00 per CPU minute Midsize $1.50 per CPU minute Client/Server $2.20 per clock hour PC or LAN $1.00 per clock hour