A BILL for an Act to amend and reenact subsection 2 of section 44-04-18 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to fees assessed for open records requests.
HB 1306 would revise North Dakota’s open records law, specifically the fee provisions in section 44-04-18 of the Century Code. The bill keeps the existing framework for requesting public records, including the ability to request copies by mail, the prohibition on asking for a requester’s motive or identity, and the ability to charge for paper copies, postage, and actual costs for non-paper copies. It also preserves the ability of public entities to require payment before locating, redacting, making, or mailing records.
The main change is to the fee structure for staff time. HB 1306 would allow public entities to charge up to $25 per hour, after the first hour, for locating records and for excising confidential or closed material, including electronic records. It would also let agencies combine multiple requests from the same requester within a seven-day period when calculating time charges. At the same time, the bill would require one free records request per requester per year for state citizens, so long as producing the request takes no more than 40 hours. The bill also clarifies that if a public entity cannot provide or mail copies itself, it may arrange for another entity to do so and pass the fee to that provider.
HB 1306 would amend North Dakota’s public records fee statute, affecting how state and local public entities calculate and collect charges for responding to open records requests. It would expand the statute’s express authority to charge for locating records and redacting confidential material, including electronic records, while also creating a limited annual free-request benefit for state citizens. The bill would likely affect agencies, requesters, and records custodians by changing the cost and administrative rules for fulfilling requests under Chapter 44-04.
The bill ultimately failed, and the available record shows no committee transcript or vote breakdown to indicate detailed debate. Based on the text alone, the measure appears to reflect a policy balance between reducing burdens on public entities that process time-intensive records requests and preserving some free access for North Dakota citizens. The failure suggests the proposal did not secure sufficient support to advance.
The likely points of contention are the new hourly fees for locating and redacting records, the treatment of multiple requests from the same requester as one request for fee purposes, and the citizenship-based free-request provision. Supporters would likely view these provisions as necessary to offset agency labor costs and discourage abusive or repetitive requests, while opponents would likely argue that the bill makes public records less accessible and imposes new barriers on requesters, especially nonresidents and those seeking large or complex records.