Opinion
Opinion By: Jack Conway, Attorney General; James M. Ringo, Assistant Attorney General
Open Records Decision
The question presented in this appeal is whether the Office of the Boone County Sheriff violated the Open Records Act in assessing Chris Henson a charge of $ 4.20 ($ 2.20 for 22 pages and $ 2.00 for postage & envelope) for copies of requested records and the cost of mailing them to him. For the reasons that follow, unless the agency can substantiate the actual cost of mailing the records is $ 2.00, it must recalculate the cost of the postage and the envelope to reflect the actual cost of mailing and charge Mr. Henson accordingly.
In his letter of appeal, Mr. Henson challenges the agency's charging for the envelope used to mail the records.
KRS 61.872(3)(b) states:
(3) A person may inspect the public records:
(Emphasis added.) The cost of mailing would include the cost of the postage stamps and the cost of the envelope in which the records are sent. However, in this case, the agency has not met its burden of substantiating that the actual cost of these items was $ 2.00. Accordingly, it must recalculate the cost of the postage and the envelope to reflect the actual cost of mailing and charge Mr. Henson that amount.
With regard to the charge of $ 2.20 for 22 copies at 10 cents per copy, this office and the courts have approved a reasonable copying fee of no more than 10 cents per page, and we find no violation of the Open Records Act in this regard. 01-ORD-136.
A party aggrieved by this decision may appeal it by initiating action in the appropriate circuit court pursuant to KRS 61.880(5) and KRS 61.882. Pursuant to KRS 61.880(3) , the Attorney General should be notified of any action in circuit court, but should not be named as a party in that action or in any subsequent proceeding.