Council Lowers Costs for Public Documents

Requesting public records documents has just become a cheaper process.

From now on, those requesting public documents will pay 5 cents per page for letter size copies, and 7 cents per page for legal size copies.

The Bridgewater Township Council approved an ordinance Monday to make the change for payments.

Township Administrator Jim Naples said that those looking for such records prior to the ordinance change were required to pay 75 cents for the first 10 pages, 50 cents for the next 10 pages and 25 cents for each additional page after that.

"A state law was passed that there were new changes," he said. "It had to do with litigation that came through."

A Superior Court decision handed down in February determined that it was only fair to charge for the actual costs of photocopying the individual pages of the government records. These actual costs account only for the cost of paper and toner.

"There is continuing litigation about this," Township Attorney Bill Savo said at the July 19 meeting.

A bill that instead set an actual standard copying fee—the same as was approved by the council—was approved by the legislature and submitted to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on June 28.

As of today, the governor has not yet signed the bill.

Although some towns chose to lower their prices below the 5 cents, the Bridgewater council opted to approve the rates as contained in the bill.

"This was a directive from the state that the municipality set its own rate," Mr. Naples said when the township's ordinance was introduced July 19. "The state just set a uniform rate and what municipalities can charge."