The District may charge a fee for the search, review, separation of exempt from non-exempt information, copying and mailing of documents. Upon receipt of the request, if a fee is to be assessed, the requester will be provided a detailed itemization of fees that will list and explain the allowable charges that compose the total fee and the District will ask whether he/she wants to proceed. In calculating the cost of labor incurred, the District can charge the hourly wage, plus fringe benefit costs, of the lowest paid employee capable of performing the task. The labor costs are estimated and charged in increments of fifteen (15) minutes, with all partial increments rounded down. If the District does not employ someone capable of determining what information should be released, the district may contract the work to an outside person or organization. In such instances, the requester will be notified of the name of the contracted person/firm on the detailed itemization of fees. The cost of contracted services cannot exceed six times the minimum wage, which currently equals $48.90 per hour.
In addition, the requester may be charged the actual cost of any non-paper physical media (e.g., computer disks, tapes, etc.) or paper requests. The maximum charge per piece of letter/legal sized paper is .10 (10 cents), as well as the actual cost of mailing the request.
If the information that is requested is available online, the District will notify the requester of such, including the specific webpage location where the information can be found. Online availability will be noted separately on the fee summary. If the requester still requests paper copies, he/she may be charged an additional fee and will be notified of the amount in the itemized fee summary.
Upon determination and disclosure of the fee, if the estimate exceeds $50.00, the FOIA enables the District to require a good faith deposit of up to half of the estimate before beginning the search for documents.
The first $20.00 of the fee must be waived for a person who is on welfare or presents facts showing inability to pay because of indigence. Even in such cases, however, the district may still charge a fee if the person has already received discounted copies from the District twice during the calendar year or if the request is made on behalf of an outside party who is offering payment. The first $20.00 of the fee will also be waived for a non-profit organization designated by the State to carry out certain activities related to persons with disabilities.