BRENHAM CITY COUNCIL ADOPTS FEE SCHEDULE FOR HANDLING PUBLIC INFORMATION REQUESTS

  

The Brenham City Council today (Thursday) approved a resolution to implement a fee schedule for the production of records requests through the Public Information Act.

The resolution formally adopts the charges put into place by the Attorney General’s Office, which sets the maximum costs that citizens can pay for copies or access to records.  City of Brenham Legal and Legislative Services Manager Karen Stack said the city is allowed to charge those established costs for the production of records – and has been charging for larger information requests – but has historically waived fees for smaller requests.

However, Stack said the quantity of information requests handled by the city has risen considerably in recent years.  The increase has led to the need for a part-time employee, and Stack said the city is also seeking to institute new specialized software to manage the requests.

Stack said once the city gets the new software in place, it plans to impose the fees for all records requests, though the city secretary would maintain discretion to waive fees when appropriate.

Click here to view the adopted fee schedule.

Also at today’s meeting, the council approved an ordinance to amend the rate tariff schedules for the city’s water utility services.  The amendment was to correct an error for the rate schedule for commercial and industrial landscape watering systems.

Councilmembers then went into executive session to speak with the city attorney on matters concerning the Brenham Municipal Airport.  No action was slated to be taken.

Click here to view the agenda packet for Thursday's meeting.