Shasta County Repeals Illegal Law Used to Impose Thousands in Public Records Fees

Last July, Shasta County’s Health and Human Services agency responded to several of Shasta Scout’s document requests by requesting fees of thousands of dollars to produce the documents. 

That was illegal, say attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the First Amendment Coalition (FAC), who represented local media agencies Shasta Scout and the Record Searchlight in a legal demand submitted to the county last September.

“Every day that the Ordinance remains in effect,” attorneys wrote in that letter, “the public is subject to a financial barrier depriving them of their transparency rights under the (California Public Records Act) and California Constitution.”

Yesterday, May 21, the county responded by getting rid of the local law under which those fees were imposed. In a press release today, the FAC and ACLU said “the decision marks the repeal of the last actively enforced ordinance of its kind and serves as a reminder that government transparency is for all of the people, not just for those who can afford it.”

California’s Public Records Act (CPRA) does allow public agencies to charge the public for the usually minimal cost of duplicating public records for distribution. But the law Shasta County was operating under went further than state law allows, authorizing the county to also impose a “cost recovery fee” for staff time used to “locate, retrieve, review, prepare, copy and furnish” the records.

While that local law has been on the books since January 2021, it hasn’t been utilized consistently to impose fees, at least not on Shasta Scout. Between May of 2021 and June of 2023, Shasta Scout submitted many dozens of document requests to the county without being asked to pay a fee. 

That changed in June of 2023 when Shasta Scout began submitting a series of public records requests designed to root out information related to the county’s homeless services, including its administration of the NorCal Continuum of Care, a seven-county collaboration that applies for and distributes state money to respond to homelessness. 

On June 27, Shasta Scout requested emails to and from Health and Human Services Director Laura Burch. The request asked for emails over a six-month period that included any one of six key words: housing, homeless, HMIS, Continuum, Lead Agency, CoC. The county responded to that document request by imposing an estimated fee of $4,750 for the approximately 190 staff hours the county said it would take to locate those emails.

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A second request submitted by Shasta Scout, also on June 27, asked for records related to outreach at a homeless encampment known as Mercy Canyon between January and June 2023. The request asked for “personnel names, positions, purpose of outreach, and individuals served.” HHSA responded to this request by imposing estimated fees of $2500, saying it would take approximately 100 staff hours to gather this information.

A third request by Shasta Scout on July 21 asked for annual financial summaries of the NorCal Continuum of Care over the last three years. At that time, the County was the administrative manager for the NorCal CoC. The county said locating and providing that information would take approximately 100 staff hours. The County imposed an estimated fee of $2450. 

In total, during the months of June and July, HHSA responded to just these three public records requests with estimated fee charges of almost $10,000, an amount that represents approximately 15% of Shasta Scout’s expected revenue this fiscal year.

Shasta Scout responded to the fees by reaching out to the FAC for pro bono legal advice. The FAC, together with the ACLU of Northern California, agreed to represent both Shasta Scout and the Record Searchlight, which has also experiencing fee requests imposed by the county.

The FAC and ACLU says the repeal of Shasta County’s illegal law is the latest in a series of legal decisions across the state that have been prompted by their statewide efforts. Shasta County is the fifth county to repeal its public records fee ordinance after an investigation by the two organizations revealed that at least eight California counties had illegal laws on the books allowing them to charge excessive fees.

Last year, Mendocino County repealed a similar law after a similar legal demand, and other counties, including Siskiyou, Tuolumne, and Ventura, have also recently repealed similar laws. Only three counties in California still have similar laws, but they do not appear to enforce those laws by actively imposing the fees, according to the FAC and ACLU.

Chessie Thacher, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Northern California, said she’s glad the Board heeded the demand to remove barriers to transparency.

“The ACLU firmly believes,” Thacher said, “that public records should not be held for ransom and only available to the wealthy.”

David Loy, Legal Director of the First Amendment Coalition agreed, emphasizing the importance of equitable access to information.

“We welcome the Board’s vote to restore the people’s access to public records,” Loy said. “Democracy depends on freedom of information, but information is not free when only the rich can afford it.”

Now that the law has been repealed, Shasta Scout and the Record Searchlight will submit updated requests for documentation previously withheld due to fees. The county has agreed to respond to those requests again, this time in compliance with California law.

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