Public Records Are Not Supposed to Be a Profit Center

Cal. Public Records Research, Inc. v. County of Stanislaus, No. F070601 (D5 Apr. 28, 2016)

Section § 27366 of the Government Code says that counties can charge a rate for the copying of public records sufficient to cover their costs. Stanislaus County charges three bucks for the first page, and two for each page thereafter. There is, however, no evidence that it actually costs that much to fulfill a public records request. So the Court of Appeal reverses a trial court’s dismissal of an administrative mandamus case and remands for the trial court to see what the evidence actually is.

Reversed.