Service Charge for Records May Include Salary Plus Benefits

In this case from the Second DCA, the court examined the legislative history of the provisions of Ch. 119 that authorize agencies to charge for "extensive" clerical or supervisory time required to respond to public records requests and decided that such a charge may be based upon the salary plus benefits of the agency employees whose time is required to respond to such requests.


The court also expressly approved the practice of requiring an advance deposit before the agency undertakes the work necessary to respond to a records request.


The opinion tacitly approves of an agency rule or policy that defines "extensive" for these purposes as any request requiring more than 15 minutes of the agency's time to respond to it and also clarifies and confirms that the service charge applies irrespective of whether the request is for copies of records or merely for inspection.