Todd County moves to streamline public‑data requests and require prepayment for large requests

Policy committee staff presented a streamlined data‑practices policy and an online request form designed to reduce the workload caused by voluminous or AI‑generated public‑data requests. The proposed approach posts copy fees and asks requesters to prepay before staff begins substantial work.

County attorney John Lindeman told the board that data requests have become more burdensome over the last year and sometimes appear punitive or retaliatory; he supported prepayment when requests would impose significant staff time. "It takes up 15 hours a week of my time now," Lindeman said in describing the new workload from complex requests. Policy staff said the existing county data practices manual was long (about 96 pages); the proposed core policy would be a shorter, state‑required baseline and a separate operating policy would govern more specific fee and workflow rules.

Staff built a test page with a posted fee schedule and a form that funnels requests to the appropriate department once payment is received; they plan to refine the proposal at policy committee and return to the board for adoption. Commissioners asked for clarity about how posting fees and prepayment would interact with statutory rights to public data; staff and the county attorney said the change is intended to deter abusive or commercial scraping of public records while preserving legitimate access.