Tomorrow(tues), the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider giving final approval to a measure that would impose a fee on certain requests for public records. The fee would be charged for any request that took more than an hour to fill, and would vary depending on how long it took to complete, and what agencies were involved in the effort. State law gives any citizen the right to request public records, although it is usually media organizations that make the requests. The law also allows government agencies to recoup any costs associated with requests. Most recent requests in Santa Cruz County reportedly would not be subject to the fee. Supervisors gave preliminary approval to the measure last week, and are expected to make the move official, when they meet at 9 a.m. at 701 Ocean Street, in Santa Cruz.
