Freedom of Information is Different Here in Spearville, Kansas

If I go down to the City Office here in Spearville and want information about what is going on in way of city meetings, agendas and such it costs me.

Spermville, excuse me, Spearville, has this form that I have to fill out to get an agenda of the next city meeting or any minutes of any meetings. God forbid that I ask them to mail me or email me the agenda of the next meeting.

This is what is charged for any information……..

.50 cents per page

$15.50 per hour with a minimum charge of .25 hour

$1.00 per each sheet for faxes

Cost of postage

All of this has to be prepaid.

Getting any information out of the City offices is like pulling teeth. Does Dodge City, Ford, Bucklin, Cimarron, Jetmore do the same? I can see maybe being charged for getting me records of what they have done in the past but I see no reason to be charged for getting a copy of an Agenda for a future Public Meeting that involves my tax money.

At the bottom of the sheet this also says: “These cost may be increased/decreased depending upon cost increase/decrease with consent of the City Council at any time.”

I am in my 60’s, have lived in 6 Kansas communities and never had such a time getting information from a Municipality.

Anyone else seeing this where they live?

[Tee]

While it is allowed under the freedom of information act, charging for the items you are requesting DOES sound disgraceful.

Did you piss someone off down at the city office?

[TexKan]

I would ask the City Clerk if I could read the minutes and see the agenda - usually they are the ones that do the note taking. Probably only charge you if you want your own copy. I bet lookin at it tho would be free. They probably also have copies at the meeting when it's held......... at no charge. Our town is small (not like Spearville) but it is proper to charge you for copies - and those prices aren't really that bad - compared to what some cities charge.

[wordsmythe]

REASONABLE fees are allowed when obtaining copies. I'd say these kinda sortta go beyond that. If you were posting are a registered user I'd see what I could do to help you out on narrowing that defenition down.

[Tee]

get you one of these and they wont be able to charge you anything.

That'll show em!!

Then come here and post the minutes. Once the good citizens of Spearville finds out they can come here and print them out at no charge, thanks to you, that'll kill their little document enterprise.