CITY GOVERNMENT TO CHARGE TAXPAYERS DOUBLE FOR PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS

While most municipalities across South Carolina are passing reforms to make government more transparent and accountable, a new policy imposed by North Myrtle Beach is moving that city in the other direction. And it is drawing fire from supporters of free and open government.

The policy, which passed the city council last week, forces citizens to pay 25 cents per page for copies, 35 cents per page for color copies and $1 per page for over-sized documents that exceed 10 pages. Citizens are also subjected to pay $25 per hour for any request that takes more than 15 minutes to fulfill.

The problem is, taxpayers are already paying for a full-time public information director whose job is to answer Freedom of Information Act requests. The new policy essentially makes citizens pay twice for access to documents that should already be easily available to the public.

City Manager John Smithson said the intent of the policy is to discourage large requests by citizens who seek information “just to have it” and people looking to examine records without having a specific question.

And critics charge it is an attempt to deter access to public records as provided by South Carolina law.

“The city’s stated goal of discouraging requests is troubling as it appears to challenge one of the fundamental principles of representative government,” said South Carolina Policy Council Communications Director Bryan Cox. “In a free society public servants work for the people, and citizens have an absolute right to examine public documents. It is inappropriate for government to create roadblocks to access, especially when the admitted reason for doing so is solely to minimize the burden to government.”

Cox added that “The argument that imposing fees will discourage frivolous requests also misses a fundamental point — there is no such thing as a frivolous request for public information. Public servants exist for the sole purpose of serving the citizenry, and citizens have an absolute right to decide for themselves what public records are important. The only function the government serves in this process is to make the information available, and any burden associated with this should rightfully fall on the public employee as one of their core responsibilities.”

But Smithson cited a recent request for several days of city communications records after the April wildfire in Myrtle Beach as proof of the new policy’s necessity.

“That request alone would take several people several days,” said Smithson.

Most experts, however, note that it is only a matter of time before the city is sued over the policy, which will ultimately force taxpayers to fork over even more money in legal fees.