R.I. bill seeks to hike fees for public records requests

Boston Globe

14-03-2025

'What's happening is people go to town hall or the police department and request records,' he said Friday. 'A lot of time is spent digging out records and retrieving them before releasing them, and the person doesn't pick them up. But the biggest reason is these people might come back in two weeks and say 'get me public records,' and they haven't paid the town for the first one.'
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Azzinaro's proposal is at odds with a multi-year campaign to
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'These are the public's records,' said Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island. 'Individuals should no more have to pay to see public records than they should have to pay for admission to attend a town council meeting.'
Azzinaro's bill is receiving attention just before
'This bill puts some clouds over the sunshine this week,' Brown said. 'There has been a clear need for open records reform in this state for many years, and a bill like this goes in precisely the wrong direction. There are too many barriers right now for the public to gain access to records, and this increased cost is another one that should not see the light of day.'
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John M. Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, said, 'If this bill passes, it will cost more for Rhode Islanders to find out what their government is doing with their tax dollars. We should be making it less expensive, not more expensive, for the public to access records.'
He said it's unclear whether people could be turned away if they have outstanding records fees in other parts of the state or what would happen if a requester did not have the ability to pay.
'This is a bill that should be held for further study,' Marion said.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Louis P. DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat, has been pushing to
One of those proposed changes would lower the costs of public records searches by eliminating fees for the first two hours of a search or retrieval, and then charging $15 per hour.
When asked about Azzinaro's bill, DiPalma said, 'We need to make the access to information easier, not harder. I believe increasing the cost drives us in the opposite direction.'
DiPalma said people should pay for records they request, but he said the issue of unpaid fees never came up in all the conversations he's had about his legislation with the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns.
He said he expects to introduce his bill by the end of March, and he expects to again lead the effort along with House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Patricia A. Serpa, a West Warwick Democrat.
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That
But the legislation has been
DiPalma has noted that the opposition is coming from government agencies, not members of the public. 'What are they afraid of?' he said in March 2024. 'This is information to help the public be better informed about our government.'
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at