Canfield council adopts public-records policy allowing fees for video requests, citing new state law

Canfield City Council adopted an ordinance amending the city's public-records policy to allow the municipality to charge actual costs for producing video records, including body-worn camera footage, citing recent state legislation.

Attorney Fortunato Machuca explained the change to council: the statute allows municipalities to charge for the actual costs of producing video records, “based on the hourly rates of your employees, not to exceed $75 an hour and not to exceed a total of $750,” he said. He said the language in the ordinance was taken verbatim from the state legislation and that the policy replaces an earlier practice that charged nominal per-page fees.

Council dispensed with the requirement for a full second meeting under the city charter and moved to adopt the ordinance on first reading. A motion was made and seconded; council voted in favor of adoption.

The city clerk and public records custodian will apply the new fee structure when fulfilling requests for video records; the ordinance directs staff to follow the statutory limits specified in the new law. Attorney Machuca also credited the city's public-records specialist for preparing the recommended language.

The ordinance does not list an implementation date on the floor; the city indicated the policy will be implemented consistent with the state statute and internal procedures for producing records.