Prompted by a bill (HB 2000) filed by Del. Danica Roem in the 2021 General Assembly session, the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council has a subcommittee studying whether and how to change how Virginia law allows fees to be charged to get records.
Section 2.2-3704(F) says, in pertinent part: “A public body may make reasonable charges not to exceed its actual cost incurred in accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for the requested records. “
VCOG Guiding Principles #4 states: "Record access should be provided at little or no cost to the citizen." VCOG regularly fields calls from requesters who are seeking ways to push back on high fees.
Fees charged for FOIA requests have escalated steadily over the past decade or so, and they are inconsistently calculated and applied from one public body to another.
The amount charged for records under FOIA can be prohibitively expensive.
Requesters have to choose between paying large sums to obtain records they are legally entitled to or giving up on a request that costs too much.
The anticipation of high fees produces a chilling effect on future requests.
Being charged to be told “no” (records withheld and/or redacted).
Bad actors: Public body uses high fees to deter requests.
The significant burden on employees who have multiple job duties.
Lack of resources to implement helpful FOIA-fulfillment software.
Requests dropped after time expended/requesters don’t pay bill.
Bad actors: Requesters who use FOIA as a sword to stymie the work of government.
What one requester thinks is “too expensive” may be different from someone else. But always, the fee must reflect the “actual cost” and be “reasonable” no matter how much the grand total is.