Kodiak Island Borough draft would make records requesters certify no legal dispute

A Kodiak Island Borough rewrite of its records code would require people who make written records requests to certify they are not in litigation or a legal dispute with the borough or another relevant public agency over the records they want. The Assembly reviewed the draft ordinance at a work session Thursday.

The draft would repeal and replace the borough's records code, which was last overhauled in 2010, and set up a boroughwide records and information management program.

Requesters would also have to state they do not seek the records primarily for a commercial or financial purpose, and acknowledge that copying or scanning fees may apply after the first 20 pages.

Staff time would still be billed once a requester's records take more than five person-hours in a calendar month. Today the first five hours are free. Under the draft, Borough Clerk Nova Javier said, the bill would include those first five hours, matching how the Alaska Public Records Act handles it.

The current code requires fees to be paid before records are released. The draft would exempt news organizations from paying in advance, though they would still owe any fees assessed.

"We're going to collect the fees later but not hinder them from getting the records so that we're not putting a block in access to the record," Javier said of media requests.

Javier said the borough has had 20 records requests since July, about five of them very extensive.

Work sessions take no formal action, and the Nov. 19 regular meeting agenda does not include the draft.