The Government Records Office on May 20 denied an appeal by an independent reporter seeking additional documents from the Division of Licensing and Background Checks (DLBC) for records related to Storm Ridge Ranch / SRS Education, upholding DLBC’s decision to assess fees for retrieval of records in decommissioned systems and its offer to provide certain recovered files for a fee.

At the hearing the petitioner, identified as Mr. Delac, said his original GRAMA request asked for records including complaints, investigations, internal emails and reports and sought a fee waiver for public‑interest reporting. Delac said DLBC initially accepted a fee waiver and provided responsive records, but those documents included multiple references (for example, “see attachment” or “see attached report”) to 19 files that DLBC did not produce. Delac asked the records office to order DLBC to provide the 19 referenced records without charge and to require a transparent, task‑level fee breakdown.

DLBC’s representative explained the agency conducted reasonable searches across three legacy databases used during recent transitions and produced all responsive materials that were readily accessible. DLBC said an IT specialist recovered 152 documents from one legacy system (referred to as “Lion”), which DLBC offered to search further for the petitioner’s 16 referenced reports for an estimated fee. DLBC also said it recovered 818 raw attachment files from another legacy system (referred to as “MLO”) that were not attached to case records; DLBC estimated that identifying and classifying those 818 files could take hundreds of staff hours (DLBC estimated roughly 409 hours) and would require additional fees.

Petitioner argued that agency migration and poor records management should not be permitted to create a new barrier to public access and said retroactive charging for documents referenced in records already produced undermined the GRAMA process. “GRAMA’s intent ... is clear to promote easy and reasonable access to unrestricted public records,” Delac said, and he urged the office to order release of the referenced materials under the originally accepted fee waiver.

DLBC said it had performed approximately 13 hours of work to assemble the initial production—about 251 pages of inspection reports, notices of noncompliance, incident descriptions and related materials—and had provided those materials without charge as a public‑interest accommodation. The agency said it had not withheld records as a policy but that many of the legacy attachments were unattached or corrupted after migration, and that a focused search through the recovered 152 Lion documents would identify most of the referenced reports but would require additional staff time. DLBC offered to perform that work for a fee and to let Delac appeal any subsequent classifications or redactions to the agency’s chief administrative officer before further administrative review.

The director reviewed the parties’ filings and the hearing record and concluded the agency had not improperly denied access. The director found that (1) if records no longer exist or are corrupted in migration that does not constitute an unlawful denial, (2) asking DLBC to comb through 818 unattached raw files in the MLO system would unreasonably interfere with agency duties and is not required under GRAMA, and (3) DLBC’s reassessment of a fee waiver for additional, follow‑up retrieval work did not amount to an unreasonable denial of a waiver given the work already performed for free. Accordingly, the director denied the appeal and upheld DLBC’s fee assessment and offers to provide recovered files for a fee. The director said a written decision would follow within seven business days and that parties have 30 calendar days to appeal to district court.