FREEDOM
OF INFORMATION COMMISSION
OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT
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In the Matter of a Complaint by
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FINAL DECISION
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Ken Mosher and Libertarian
Party of Connecticut, |
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Complainants
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against
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Docket
#FIC 2001-030 |
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Election Services Manager,
State of Connecticut, Office
of the Secretary of the State;
and State of Connecticut,
Office of the Secretary of
the State, |
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Respondents
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October
24, 2001 |
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The above-captioned matter was
heard as a contested case on July 31, 2001, at which time the complainants and
the respondents appeared, stipulated to certain facts and presented testimony,
exhibits and argument on the complaint. For
purposes of hearing, this case was consolidated with Docket #FIC2001-053;
Ken Mosher and Libertarian Party of Connecticut v. Maria M. Greenslade, Deputy
Secretary of State, State of Connecticut, Office of the Secretary of the State.
After consideration of the
entire record, the following facts are found and conclusions of law are
reached:
1.
The Commission takes administrative notice of the record and final
decision in Docket #FIC 2000-531; Christopher C. Noble v. Director,
Elections Division, State of Connecticut, Office of the Secretary of the
State; and State of Connecticut, Office of the Secretary of the State.
3.
It is found that, by e-mail dated December 21, 2000 to the respondents,
the complainants requested a CD-ROM of the record of statewide voters
registered as Green Party and Reform Party members or, if such record was not
available in CD-ROM form, a CD-ROM of all statewide registered voters,
contending that such record should be available to them at a cost of $45.87,
or less.
4.
It is found that, by e-mail dated December 21, 2000, the respondents
informed the complainants that they did not have the ability to provide the
complainants with a CD-ROM of records indicating only the statewide voters
registered as Green Party and Reform Party members; however, the respondents
offered to provide the complainants with a CD-ROM of all statewide registered
voters, at a cost of $300.00.
5.
By letter dated January 8, 2001, and filed on January 17, 2001, the
complainants appealed to this Commission, alleging that the respondents
violated §§1-211(a) and 1-212(b)(4), G.S., by charging more than the amount
allowed by statute for a copy of records stored within a computer.
6.
Section 1-210(a), G.S., provides in relevant part that:
“[e]xcept as otherwise provided by any federal
law or state statute, all records maintained or kept on file by any public
agency, whether or not such records are required by any law or by any rule
or regulation, shall be public records and every person shall have the
right to inspect such records promptly during regular office or business
hours or to receive a copy of such records in accordance with the
provisions of section 1-212….”
7.
Section 1-211(a), G.S., provides that:
“[a]ny public agency which maintains public
records in a computer storage system shall provide, to any person making a
request pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, a copy of any
nonexempt data contained in such records, properly identified, on paper,
disk, tape or any other electronic storage device or medium requested by
the person, if the agency can reasonably make such copy or have such a
copy made. Except as
otherwise provided by state statute, the cost for providing a copy of such
data shall be in accordance with the provisions of section 1-212.”
8. It is concluded that
the requested records, to the extent that the respondents maintain them, are
public records within the meaning of §§1-210(a), and 1-211(a), G.S.
9. Section 1-212, G.S.,
provides in relevant part that:
“(a) [a]ny person applying in writing shall
receive, promptly upon request, a plain or certified copy of any public
record . . . .(b) The fee for
any copy provided in accordance with subsection (a) of section 1-211 shall
not exceed the cost thereof to the public agency.
In determining such costs for a copy, other than for a printout
which exists at the time that the agency responds to the request for such
copy, an agency may include only: (1)
An amount equal to the hourly salary attributed to all agency
employees engaged in providing the requested computer-stored public
record, including their time performing the formatting or programming
functions necessary to provide the copy as requested, but not including
search or retrieval costs except as provided in subdivision (4) of this
subsection; (2) An amount
equal to the cost to the agency of engaging an outside professional
electronic copying service to provide such copying services, if such
service is necessary to provide the copying as requested; (3)
The actual cost of the storage devices or media provided to the
person making the request in complying with such request; and (4)
The computer time charges incurred by the agency in providing the
requested computer-stored public record where another agency or contractor
provides the agency with computer storage and retrieval services.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the fee for
any copy of the names of registered voters shall not exceed three cents
per name delivered or the cost thereof to the public agency, as determined
pursuant to this subsection, whichever is less.
The Department of Information Technology shall monitor the
calculation of the fees charged for copies of computer-stored public
records to ensure that such fees are reasonable and consistent among
agencies.”
10.
It is found that, pursuant to a program of the respondents, the
registrars of voters in all but 27 cities and towns in Connecticut have
voluntarily agreed to store their voter registration information
electronically on a computer terminal connected to a mainframe that
incorporates the voter registration information from all participating towns
and cities into one centralized list [hereinafter “the list”].
11.
It is found that at any time, any of the participating registrars can
update its existing voter registration information or add new voter
registration information. Consequently,
the list is modified at the same time any changes are made by any registrar.
12.
It is found that the list contains the names, addresses, party
affiliations, and electoral districts of approximately 1.8 million statewide
registered voters, except the registered voters in 27 municipalities who are
not participants in the program described in paragraph 10, above.
13.
It is further found that the list is stored on a mainframe housed and
maintained by the State Department of Information Technology [hereinafter “DOIT”],
pursuant to a contractual vendor/vendee relationship that exists between the
respondents and DOIT. It is also
found that, pursuant to said relationship, DOIT provides certain computer
services to the respondents and bills the respondents for such services.
14. It is found that the process for producing a copy of the
voter registration list on CD-ROM from the mainframe is as follows:
a.
a requester is
informed that the copying is usually done on the weekend because the process
takes several hours and can only be done when changes aren’t being made to
the list by registrars of voters;
b.
the respondent
submits a request to DOIT to run the batch program;
c.
once the batch
program is run, the information is compressed and sent to a computer terminal
at the Office of the Secretary of the State where the information is
decompressed and transferred onto the CD-ROM, which is provided to the
requester.
15.
It is found that after all the information has been transferred onto a
CD-ROM, the information is generally deleted from the computer terminal at the
Office of the Secretary of the State because the database uses a great deal of
computer memory.
16.
It is found that the cost to the respondents to obtain the most current
copy of the centralized list is $1,700, which is the computer time charged by
DOIT for providing the respondents with computer storage and retrieval
services and that such cost is incurred each time the respondent office
requests a batch to be run.
17. It is found that DOIT cannot produce a CD-ROM containing only
those voters registered by political party, using current mainframe
applications.
18. At the hearing in this matter, the complainant Mosher
testified that he would accept a CD-ROM of the list in its entirety, but
contended that the complainants should not be required to pay for information
in which they have no interest. Specifically,
the complainants contend that, since they are only interested in the list
insofar as it contains Green Party and Reform Party members, and since they
believe such voters number 1529, the fee of 3 cents per name set forth in
§1-212(b)(4), G.S., should control and that the maximum fee assessed for the
requested record is properly $45.87.
19. It is found, however, that, pursuant to §1-212(b)(4), G.S.,
the respondents may charge the complainants the full amount of $1,700.00,
which is the lesser cost of providing the names of registered voters to the
complainants. Moreover, it is
further found that the respondents merely charged the complainants $300.00 for
a copy of the list on CD-ROM, in an attempt to make the list accessible, while
allowing the respondents to recover some of the cost of providing a copy of
the list.
20.
It is therefore concluded that the respondents did not violate the cost
provisions of §§1-210(a), 1-211(a) and 1-212(b)(4), G.S., in this matter.
The following order by the
Commission is hereby recommended on the basis of the record concerning the
above-captioned complaint.
1.
The complaint is hereby dismissed.
Approved by Order of the Freedom of Information
Commission at its regular meeting of October 24, 2001.
_______________________________________
Petrea A. Jones
Acting Clerk of the Commission
PURSUANT TO SECTION 4-180(c), G.S., THE FOLLOWING ARE THE
NAMES OF EACH PARTY AND THE MOST RECENT MAILING ADDRESS, PROVIDED TO THE
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION COMMISSION, OF THE PARTIES OR THEIR AUTHORIZED
REPRESENTATIVE.
THE PARTIES TO THIS CONTESTED CASE ARE:
Ken Mosher and Libertarian
Party of Connecticut
110 Walnut Street
Willimantic, CT 06226
Election Services Manager,
State of Connecticut, Office
of the Secretary of the State;
and State of Connecticut,
Office of the Secretary of
the State
c/o Michael T. Kozik, Esq.
Office of the Secretary of the State
30 Trinity Street
Hartford, CT 06106
________________________________
Petrea A. Jones
Acting Clerk of the Commission
FIC/2001-030/FD/paj/10/29/2001