Opinion ID: 2520291
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Cost of Redaction

Text: Data Tree contends that if redaction is required by any provision of law, the costs of such redaction must be borne by the Register of Deeds. The district court ruled that pursuant to K.S.A. 45-219, all costs of producing the requested records including the cost of redaction were to be borne by Data Tree as the requester. The district court noted this was similar to the policy applicable to litigation costs where a party requesting records is responsible for the costs of their production. In general, K.S.A. 45-219(c)(1) provides in part that each public agency may prescribe reasonable fees for providing access to or furnishing copies of public records and, in the case of fees for copies of records, the fees shall not exceed the actual cost of furnishing copies, including the cost of staff time required to make the information available. K.S.A. 2004 Supp. 45-221(d) provides in relevant part that [i]f a public record contains material which is not subject to this act, the public agency shall separate or delete such material and make available to the requester that material in the public record which is subject to disclosure pursuant to this act. Data Tree argues that if the Register of Deeds has the duty to separate and delete material not subject to disclosure, the duty is an affirmative duty on the part of the Register of Deeds who must bear the costs of such action. According to Data Tree, the plain language of K.S.A. 2004 Supp. 45-221(d) requires the custodian of the records to perform the act of redaction and then make available the remaining records but does not require the requester of the records to do anything. Data Tree further argues that K.S.A. 45-219(c)(1) provides for fees to make copies and to make information available, but it does not authorize fees such as those established by the Register of Deeds to withhold copies or to make information unavailable. In support of its argument, Data Tree first relies on Professor Frederickson's belief that requesters should not bear the costs of cleansing records of exempted materials and that the costs of copying and staff time charged to a requester threaten to be the biggest impediment to open records under the KORA. See 33 Kan. L. Rev. at 266. It also argues that with regard to the federal FOIA, federal courts have consistently placed the cost burdens for the excision of information upon the governmental agency. Data Tree then discounts the holding of State ex rel. Stephan v. Harder, 230 Kan. 573, 589-90, 641 P.2d 366 (1982), which allowed a state agency to pass costs of redaction along to the requester, on grounds the decision in that case predated the KORA and was based on a statute silent on the issue of redaction but later repealed when the KORA was enacted. Data Tree argues the reasoning of Harder was superseded by the separate and delete language of K.S.A. 2004 Supp. 45-221(d). The Register of Deeds asserts that throughout K.S.A. 45-219, the emphasis is that the requester bears the burden of the cost of reproducing public records. He argues the language of the current statute is in keeping with the holding of Harder and points to the quotation therein of a portion of a Georgia Supreme Court decision that held the reasonable costs of deleting nondisclosable information from certain public records are to be borne by the requester. See 230 Kan. at 581-82 (quoting Griffin-Spalding &c. Auth. v. WKEV, 240 Ga. 444, 241 S.E.2d 196 [1978]). The issue determined in that portion of the Harder opinion, however, did not concern the assignment of redaction costs; rather, it concerned whether the former Kansas Public Records Inspection Act, K.S.A. 45-201 et seq. (Ensley 1981), required the deletion of confidential information from an otherwise disclosable record. The Register of Deeds also argues that Data Tree points to nothing in the current law that would shift the cost of redaction from the requester to the government. He also notes that the Frederickson article observes that the KORA is silent on the issue of who bears the cost of redaction. With regard to the FOIA, he notes that the FOIA provides for fee waivers in limited circumstances while the KORA does not, and because Data Tree's interest is solely for commercial purposes it would not be eligible for a fee waiver if it made a request under the FOIA. No Kansas cases have considered who bears the cost of redaction under the KORA. The KORA is silent on this specific point. However, the Register of Deeds correctly notes that the KORA contemplates the payment of a fee by a requester of copies of public records, K.S.A. 45-219(a); if it is impractical to copy a public record at the place the record is located and if it is necessary to use another facility for copying, the cost thereof shall be paid by the person desiring a copy of the records, K.S.A. 45-219(b); a public agency may charge the same fee for the services rendered in supervising the copying as for furnishing copies, K.S.A. 45-219(b); and fees for copies of records shall not exceed the actual cost of furnishing copies, including the cost of staff time required to make the information available, K.S.A. 45-219(c). Redaction of information in public records not subject to disclosure is an act that would be included in the actual cost of furnishing copies. Nothing in the KORA requires or contemplates shifting any portion of the actual cost of furnishing copies of the requested records from the requester to the custodian of the records. Although a now-repealed statute was involved when the Harder court considered who was to bear the expense of deleting exempt material from an otherwise disclosable record, our reasoning is equally applicable to this situation. The KORA does not specifically mention who is to bear the cost of redaction. It does, however, make clear the legislative intent that actual costs of furnishing copies of public records may be recovered by the agency and that the person seeking the records should bear the actual expense. Charging the requesting party with the attendant expense does not appear inconsistent with the purpose of the KORA. The district court did not err in ruling the costs of producing records, including the costs of redaction, are to be borne by Data Tree.