An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Public Records
Maine Legislature, Session 126, LD 0104
Committee: Judiciary
Sponsors: NELSON, MILLETT, HUBBELL, KENT, KUSIAK, MAKER, TURNER, HASKELL
Amends: 1 MRSA §402, 1 MRSA §408-A, 30-A MRSA §4353

Legislative Document 
No. 104 
H.P. 86 
House of Representatives, January 24, 2013 
An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Public Records 
Reference to the Committee on Judiciary suggested and ordered printed. 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative NELSON of Falmouth. 
Cosponsored by Senator MILLETT of Cumberland and 
Representatives: HUBBELL of Bar Harbor, KENT of Woolwich, KUSIAK of Fairfield, 
MAKER of Calais, TURNER of Burlington, Senator: HASKELL of Cumberland. 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  1 MRSA §402, sub-§3, ¶Q, as amended by PL 2011, c. 149, §2, is further 
amended to read: 
Q.  Security plans, staffing plans, security procedures, architectural drawings or risk 
assessments prepared for emergency events that are prepared for or by or kept in the 
custody of the Department of Corrections or a county jail if there is a reasonable 
possibility that public release or inspection of the records would endanger the life or 
physical safety of any individual or disclose security plans and procedures not 
generally known by the general public.  Information contained in records covered by 
this paragraph may be disclosed to state and county officials if necessary to carry out 
the duties of the officials, the Department of Corrections or members of the State 
Board of Corrections under conditions that protect the information from further 
disclosure; and 
Sec. 2.  1 MRSA §402, sub-§3, ¶R, as enacted by PL 2011, c. 149, §3, is 
amended to read: 
R.  Social security numbers in the possession of the Secretary of State.; and 
Sec. 3.  1 MRSA §402, sub-§3, ¶S is enacted to read: 
S.  E-mail addresses obtained by a political subdivision of the State for the sole 
purpose of disseminating noninteractive notifications, updates, cancellations, 
newsletters or other similar communications that are issued from the political 
subdivision or its elected officers to an individual or individuals that request or 
regularly accept these noninteractive communications. 
Sec. 4.  1 MRSA §408-A, sub-§8, ¶B, as enacted by PL 2011, c. 662, §5, is 
amended to read: 
B.  The agency or official may charge a fee to cover the actual cost of searching for, 
retrieving and compiling the requested public record of not more than $15 per hour 
after excluding the first hour of staff time per request. Compiling the public record 
includes reviewing and redacting confidential information.  For the purposes of this 
paragraph, "actual cost" means the number of hours employees of the agency or 
official spent complying with the request multiplied by the hourly rate of the lowest-
paid public employee possessing the capabilities and qualifications to compile the 
public record. "Actual cost" does not include attorney consultation costs. 
Sec. 5.  30-A MRSA §4353, sub-§4-A, as repealed and replaced by PL 2009, c. 
342, §1, is amended to read: 
4-A.  Disability variance; vehicle storage.  A disability variance may be granted 
pursuant to this subsection.  Documents submitted to the board that describe or verify a 
person's disability are not public records pursuant to Title 1, chapter 13. 
A.  The board may grant a variance to an owner of a dwelling for the purpose of 
making that dwelling accessible to a person with a disability who resides in or 
regularly uses the dwelling. The board shall restrict any variance granted under this 
paragraph solely to the installation of equipment or the construction of structures 
necessary for access to or egress from the dwelling by the person with the disability.  
The board may impose conditions on the variance granted pursuant to this paragraph, 
including limiting the variance to the duration of the disability or to the time that the 
person with the disability lives in the dwelling. For the purposes of this paragraph,  
the term "structures necessary for access to or egress from the dwelling" is defined to 
include railing, wall or roof systems necessary for the safety or effectiveness of the 
structure. 
B.  If authorized by the zoning ordinance establishing the board, the board may grant 
a variance to an owner of a dwelling who resides in the dwelling and who is a person 
with a permanent disability for the construction of a place of storage and parking for 
a noncommercial vehicle owned by that person and no other purpose.  The width and 
length of the structure may not be larger than 2 times the width and length of the 
noncommercial vehicle.  The owner shall submit proposed plans for the structure 
with the request for the variance pursuant to this paragraph to the board. 
The person with the permanent disability shall prove by a preponderance of the 
evidence that the person's disability is permanent. 
For purposes of this paragraph, "noncommercial vehicle" means a motor vehicle as 
defined in Title 29-A, section 101, subsection 42 with a gross vehicle weight of no 
more than 6,000 pounds, bearing a disability registration plate issued pursuant to 
Title 29-A, section 521 and  owned by the person with the permanent disability. 
The board may impose conditions on the variance granted pursuant to this subsection. 
For purposes of this subsection, "disability" has the same meaning as a physical or mental 
disability under Title 5, section 4553-A. 
SUMMARY 
This bill amends the laws governing public records in 3 ways. First, it adds an 
exception to the definition of "public records" under the Freedom of Access Act for 
e-mail addresses obtained by a political subdivision of the State for the sole purpose of 
disseminating noninteractive communications to individuals. Second, the bill eliminates 
the cap on the hourly rate that a governmental entity may charge to cover the actual cost 
of searching for, retrieving and compiling a requested public record and establishes a 
definition of "actual cost" that is tied to the hourly rate paid to employees to fulfill a 
request. Third, the bill creates an exception to the Freedom of Access Act for documents 
submitted to a municipal board of appeals that describe or verify the mental or physical 
disability of a person who is seeking a variance from certain land use regulations in order 
to accommodate the disability.