New fees for public records approved by Ronan council
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RONAN – The price of accessing public information from the City of Ronan increased substantially last week, as the city council approved a resolution that sets new fees for documents and services.
Under the new resolution, the city will charge $35 per hour to search and make copies for records. Copies of council minutes cost 15 cents per page for the first 10 pages, and 25 cents per page after that. Copies of documents that are not city council minutes cost 25 cents per page. If records require examination by the city attorney, a fee of $100 per hour fee will be charged. Documents may require examination by the city attorney if the city questions if it is legal to release them to the public. Previously, all documents were accessible for a price of 15 cents per page.
In practice, this means the price of a 10-page document that took an hour to prepare and required an hour of legal review increased from $1.50 to $152.50.
Under the policy, the city clerk will perform a fee estimate and payment for that estimate must be made before work is completed. The balance between the estimate and actual cost must also be paid before the documents are released. At a public hearing before the resolution passed, Mayor Kim Aipperspach and City Clerk Kaylene Melton clarified that the public would still be able to inspect public documents for free.
“You can come in and look at the documents … as long as it’s not taking up our time and asking questions,” Melton said.
Additional fees were also imposed for obtaining police documents and replacement animal tags. Police reports cost $20. Vehicles impounded will cost $25 for each day impounded, plus tow and storage costs. Animal tags increased in price from $1 to $5.
Following approval of the the prices, Aipperspach said the council wants to make its government more transparent.
“I think we need to somehow inform the public a little better about what we’re doing,” Aipperspach said.
A town website would be helpful, but is not likely to come into creation soon, Aipperspach said.
In other business:
• Council members Chris Adler, Roger Romero, Marlene Melton and Aipperspach were sworn into office.
Opinions were split as to which candidate should be hired as policeman. The council narrowed the pool of candidates down from seven qualified applicants to four final applicants in interviews prior to the Dec. 15 meeting. Adler, council member Cal Hardy and Ronan police officer John Mitchell voiced their support for hiring officer Jody Steele as police officer to the department. Aipperspach, who has the final decision on hiring, decided to offer the job to a former military police officer James Garcia, who currently works for the Montana State Prison. The rest of the council and Police Chief Val Maxell supported hiring Garcia. Officer Pat Noble asked the council members if they had checked the references of the candidates before making a decision. Aipperspach said all of the references had not been called. Garcia was sworn in as a police officer on Dec. 19. Garcia will attend the Montana Police Academy beginning Jan. 6 and must work for the city for three years after graduation.
• The council authorized Aipperspach to sign the final paperwork that will set up rental agreements and an interlocal agreement that will allow the newly created library district to take full responsibility for the Ronan Library in January 2014.
