§2-G-5 | REQUESTS FOR FREE COPIES OF PUBLIC RECORDS
However, chapter 119, F.S., does not contain a provision that prohibits agencies from charging indigent persons or inmates the applicable statutory fee to obtain copies of public records. See Roesch v. State, 633 So. 2d 1, 3 (Fla. 1993) (indigent inmate not entitled to receive copies of public records free of charge nor to have original state attorney files mailed to him in prison; prisoners are “in the same position as anyone else seeking public records who cannot pay” the required costs); Potts v. State, 869 So. 2d 1223 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004) (no merit to inmate’s contention that Ch. 119, F.S., entitles him to free copies of all records generated in his case); Bennett v. Clerk of Circuit Court Citrus County, 150 So. 3d 277 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014) (authority providing indigent criminal defendants with free copies does not extend beyond the direct appeal of judgment and sentence and transcripts of evidentiary hearings held on postconviction claims); Milner v. State, 196 So. 3d 569 (Fla. 4th DCA 2016) (indigent prisoners are not entitled to free copies of records under the Public Records Act); and Yanke v. State, 588 So. 2d 4 (Fla. 2d DCA 1991), review denied, 595 So. 2d 559 (Fla. 1992), cert. denied, 112 S.Ct. 1592 (1992) (prisoner must pay copying and postage charges to have copies of public records mailed to him). And see State, Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services v. Southpointe Pharmacy, 636 So. 2d 1377, 1382n.7 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994) (indigent person “is not relieved by his indigency” from paying statutory costs to obtain public records). Cf. Siegmeister v. Johnson, 240 So. 3d 70 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018) (Public Records Act does not require government officials to move records from where they are being maintained to a different place convenient to the requester, citing to Roesch v. State).
Similarly, a labor union must pay the costs stipulated in Ch. 119, F.S., for copies of documents it has requested from a public employer for collective bargaining purposes because “[a] labor union seeking information from the employer with whom it is locked in collective bargaining negotiations is not exempt from the Florida Public Records Act.” City of Miami Beach v. Public Employees Relations Commission, 937 So. 2d 226 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006). And see Inf. Op. to Garganese, April 14, 1998 (authority to charge city council member for copies of public records).
A school district is under no statutory obligation to provide copies of public records free of charge to individual members of a school advisory council, but a school district may formulate a policy for the distribution of such records. AGO 99-46. If it is found that the advisory council needs certain school records in order to carry out its statutory functions, such records should be provided to the council in the same manner that records related to agenda items are provided to school board members. Id. Cf. Inf. Op. to Martin, November 21, 2006 (school board policy requiring that a request for information by an individual board member requiring more than sixty minutes of staff time to prepare must be presented to the school board for approval would be invalid if the school board member is asking under public records law; however, the school board member would be subject to any charges allowed by Chapter 119, F.S.). (Florida Office of the Attorney General // © )
