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General Assembly Committee Bill No. 6876
January Session, 2019
LCO No. 4532
Referred to Committee on GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION
AND ELECTIONS
Introduced by:
(GAE)
AN ACT CONCERNING TH E COPYING OF PUBLIC RECORDS BY
USING A HAND-HELD SCANNER.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Subsection (a) of section 1-212 of the general statutes is 1
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective 2
October 1, 2019): 3
(a) Any person applying in writing shall receive, promptly upon 4
request, a plain, facsimile, electronic or certified copy of any public 5
record. The type of copy provided shall be within the discretion of the 6
public agency, except (1) the agency shall provide a certified copy 7
whenever requested, and (2) if the applicant does not have access to a 8
computer or facsimile machine, the public agency shall not send the 9
applicant an electronic or facsimile copy. [The] Except as provided in 10
subsection (g) of this section, the fee for any copy provided in 11
accordance with the Freedom of Information Act: 12
(A) By an executive, administrative or legislative office of the state, a 13
state agency or a department, institution, bureau, board, commission, 14
Committee Bill No. 6876
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authority or official of the state, including a committee of, or created 15
by, such an office, agency, department, institution, bureau, board, 16
commission, authority or official, and also including any judicial office, 17
official or body or committee thereof but only in respect to its or their 18
administrative functions, shall not exceed twenty-five cents per page; 19
and 20
(B) By all other public agencies, as defined in section 1-200, shall not 21
exceed fifty cents per page. If any copy provided in accordance with 22
said Freedom of Information Act requires a transcription, or if any 23
person applies for a transcription of a public record, the fee for such 24
transcription shall not exceed the cost thereof to the public agency. 25
Sec. 2. Subsection (g) of section 1-212 of the general statutes is 26
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective 27
October 1, 2019): 28
(g) Any individual may copy a public record through the use of a 29
hand-held scanner. [A public agency may establish a fee structure not 30
to exceed twenty dollars for an individual to pay each time the 31
individual copies records at the agency with a hand-held scanner.] The 32
fee for copying records at the public agency with a hand-held scanner 33
shall be as follows: (1) The first two hundred pages or less shall be free 34
of charge; (2) from two hundred one pages until five hundred pages 35
shall cost ten dollars; and (3) any number of pages exceeding five 36
hundred pages shall cost twenty dollars. As used in this section, 37
"hand-held scanner" means a battery operated electronic scanning 38
device the use of which [(1)] (A) leaves no mark or impression on the 39
public record, and [(2)] (B) does not unreasonably interfere with the 40
operation of the public agency, and includes, but is not limited to, any 41
mobile telephone or camera. 42
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2019 1-212(a)
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Sec. 2 October 1, 2019 1-212(g)
Statement of Purpose:
To set forth a fee structure for when a person takes pictures of a public
document with a camera or cell phone or scans public documents
using a hand-held scanner.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline,
except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is
not underlined.]
Co-Sponsors: REP. WINKLER, 56th Dist.
H.B. 6876