AG Derek Schmidt: City of Frontenac violated KORA with fee request

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has notified the City of Frontenac that it violated the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) when it requested a $3,500 fee in order to furnish copies of public records to a reporter.

In October 2019, a representative of the media filed a KORA complaint with the attorney general’s office alleging, in part, that the city’s $3,500 fee request to furnish public records he requested on September 18 was unreasonable. Upon investigation, the attorney general’s office determined that Frontenac’s fee request was unreasonable and thus violated the KORA because it failed to explain or justify its $3,500 fee request, including why it was seeking $225.00 per hour for any time spent by its outside legal counsel.

“While the city may recover its actual costs in responding to a KORA request, those costs must still be reasonable,” the attorney general’s office wrote in a finding of violation. “An hourly rate of $225.00 per hour for attorney time is per se unreasonable. Outside counsel may charge a governmental entity for its services. However, based on the public policy and purpose of the KORA, it is unreasonable for a public agency to pass those costs onto a requester without a significant reduction in the hourly fee rate.”