Ferguson Demands High Fees To Turn Over City Files
Source: Huffington Post/AP
WASHINGTON (AP) Officials in Ferguson, Missouri, are charging nearly 10 times the cost of some of their own employees' salaries before they will agree to turn over files under public records laws about the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
The move discourages journalists and civil rights groups from investigating the shooting and its aftermath. And it follows dozens of records requests to Ferguson under the state's Sunshine Law, which can offer an unvarnished look into government activity.
The city has demanded high fees to produce copies of records that, under Missouri law, it could give away free if it determined the material was in the public's interest to see. Instead, in some cases, the city has demanded high fees with little explanation or cost breakdown.
In one case, it billed The Associated Press $135 an hour for nearly a day's work merely to retrieve a handful of email accounts since the shooting. That fee compares with an entry-level, hourly salary of $13.90 in the city clerk's office, and it didn't include costs to review the emails or release them. The AP has not paid for the search.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/29/ferguson-city-files_n_5899388.html
They got nothing to hide, right?
MADem
(135,425 posts)charge them late fees.
That town runs on usurious charges and graft.
mrdmk
(2,943 posts)to the public institutions! Different day, same shit...
These people are so full of themselves they are beyond arrogant!
Orsino
(37,428 posts)jwirr
(39,215 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,216 posts)Thanks for the thread, Cali_Democrat.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)Heard they were running voter drives. They need the rest the nations support.
I wonder if we can get some kind of federal intervention.
avebury
(10,948 posts)the good stuff - and then start posting it on the internet.
ck4829
(35,010 posts)CanonRay
(14,055 posts)a bad drive-in movie.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)pnwmom
(108,934 posts)questionseverything
(9,636 posts)paraphrasing here but this blogger/activist got 160 individuals to do the same foia over one weekend, the departments story was anon had hacked their servers and deleted the requests....lol
in election integrity groups we run into the same thing all the time....huge sums of cash needed to view documents that should be part of the public domain
it is just a denial of services attack....hoping folks will give up
pnwmom
(108,934 posts)TeamPooka
(24,185 posts)questionseverything
(9,636 posts)aggiesal
(8,894 posts)It's called [Font color=RED]EXTORTION[/font].
And, it's illegal.
I personally think they're trying to make it so difficult to release,
that they'll never have to release it.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)It's funny how it takes only seconds to gun down people in the middle of the street but justice takes so effing long to catch up. Looks to me like in this very explosive situation, the Justice Dept would get the ball rolling. Because every day, we hear of more and more incidents against black citizens, most of which are deadly.
The Ferguson PD is doing everything they can to instigate a REAL riot in this country. For example, Chief Jackson going to the street last week to talk to the protesters. Publicly apologizing to Michael Jackson's parents via a recording six effing weeks after the fact. Now we hear of gouging for documents that should have no, or very little, cost attached.
Justice delayed is justice denied, and the shit is going to hit the fan if DOJ doesn't get on the stick!
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Paid for by the tax payers?
And who are these public employees to be running this like they own it?
DallasNE
(7,401 posts)Identical concept as a poll tax. People in authority never want to be held accountable for their actions so they use the power of the purse to deny justice and feed corruption.
barbtries
(28,733 posts)where's the justice department? these people cannot be trusted and they have proven it beyond a doubt.
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)where schedule of fees are vote on and approved. They may be lawsuit territory.
1) Fees for copying public records, except those records restricted under section 32.091, shall not exceed ten cents per page for a paper copy not larger than nine by fourteen inches, with the hourly fee for duplicating time not to exceed the average hourly rate of pay for clerical staff of the public governmental body. Research time required for fulfilling records requests may be charged at the actual cost of research time. Based on the scope of the request, the public governmental body shall produce the copies using employees of the body that result in the lowest amount of charges for search, research, and duplication time. Prior to producing copies of the requested records, the person requesting the records may request the public governmental body to provide an estimate of the cost to the person requesting the records. Documents may be furnished without charge or at a reduced charge when the public governmental body determines that waiver or reduction of the fee is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the public governmental body and is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester;
http://www.moga.mo.gov/statutes/C600-699/6100000026.HTM
C Moon
(12,204 posts)ticket and arrest people for their skin color now. They know there will have to be other sources of income to feed their fat bellies.
Man. That city is messed up.
Reminds me of the city of Bell debacle in Southern California.
Cha
(296,370 posts)Thank you, Cali~
Calista241
(5,584 posts)And why don't they just file a FOIA request?
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)Yeesh.