Whitefish updates public-records fees to match state law limiting staff charges

The City Council adopted resolution 25‑32, updating Whitefish’s public‑records fee schedule to comply with Montana House Bill 100. Angie (city attorney) told the council HB 100 limits fees the city may charge for staff time when responding to public records requests.

Angie said the revised schedule permits staff time charges at $25 per hour, with the first hour free, and allows the city to recoup hard costs such as scanning, printing and postage. For broad or “fishing expedition” requests staff will charge a $5 filing fee and then $25 per hour after the first hour. “We get numerous public records requests in a month. And they are extremely time intensive,” Angie said. “Sometimes people are so broad with their requests that we don't know what they're looking for.”

The new resolution also allows the city to charge a convenience fee for credit‑card payments and to recover other reasonable costs. Angie noted a Great Falls court decision limited prior ability to charge for attorney review time; the revised schedule allows charging $25 per hour for review moving forward.

The city held a public hearing on the resolution; no members of the public addressed the council. Councilor Rebecca moved to approve resolution 25‑32; Councilor Sweeney seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

Councilors asked a clarifying question about the term “readily available.” Angie said HB 100 does not define it, but she interprets it to mean clearly identifiable records that a department can pull quickly (for example, a single building file that can be located in 15 minutes), whereas broad keyword email searches that require IT retrieval and manual review are not “readily available.”