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Vermont committee hears bill to let agencies charge for staff time on burdensome public-records requests
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Summary
Representative Jed Lipsky introduced H.502 to the Government Operations & Military Affairs committee, saying the bill would let agencies charge reasonable fees for actual staff costs when requesters impose heavy administrative burdens (for example, photographing records page-by-page). The committee signaled it will review the proposal in coming months.
Representative Jed Lipsky told the Government Operations & Military Affairs committee that H.502, “an act relating to charging for actual cost under Vermont Public Records Act,” is meant to let agencies recover reasonable costs when fulfilling unusually burdensome records requests.
Lipsky, who identified himself as representing the Memorial 1 District, told the panel the bill is short and focused on preventing tactics that consume staff hours without restricting access. He described a pattern in which requesters ask to photograph records page by page — “They say they would like to photograph it. So they asked for 200 pages… And then the hours click by and there’s still 380 pages to go,” he said — and said some agencies now face staffing limits that make such requests difficult to handle without recouping staff costs.
"The spirit of my bill is… to be a fiscally responsible fiduciary of the state and of the citizenry," Lipsky said, adding, "I'm a believer of open meeting law and would enforce it to the end of time and access to public records." He told the committee the intent is to allow an agency to charge for ‘‘actual costs’’ when staff must dedicate time to assist in onerous requests.
The committee noted it had already heard testimony earlier in the day from the League of Cities and Towns and a national state-local group (spoken in the transcript as "CSL"/"NCSL"). Representative Morgan (referenced by the chair) endorsed Lipsky’s characterization of the problem, saying, “The word of the day is vexatious,” to describe disruptive or intentionally burdensome requests.
No formal vote or motion was taken. Committee members thanked Lipsky for appearing on short notice and the chair said the committee would give the proposal attention in the coming months. The bill’s text and any proposed fee schedule or administrative rules were not specified in the hearing record.
Next steps: the committee signaled it will consider H.502 in future meetings; no formal referral, vote, or amendment was recorded in the transcript.
