Facts and Procedural History:

For purposes of simplification, the information presented by the person who requested this opinion and the response from the government entity with which the person disagrees are presented in summary form. Copies of the complete submissions are on file at the offices of IPA and, except for any data classified as not public, are available for public access.

On April 29, 1999, IPA received a letter from Mark Anfinson, an attorney, on behalf of his client, the St. Cloud State University Chronicle, the student newspaper at St. Cloud State University (SCSU). In his letter, Mr. Anfinson asked the Commissioner to issue an opinion regarding the propriety of SCSU's fees for public personnel data. Mr. Anfinson enclosed a copy of SCSU's data request form.

In response to Mr. Anfinson's request, IPA, on behalf of the Commissioner, wrote to Bruce Grube, President of SCSU. The purposes of this letter, dated May 11, 1999, were to inform him of Mr. Anfinson's request, and to ask him to provide information or support for SCSU's position. On May 21, 1999, IPA received a response from Annette R. Wilson, Special Assistant to the President/General Counsel. A summary of the detailed facts of this matter follows.

The Chronicle received an announcement from the SCSU Human Resources Office concerning its fees for copies of public personnel data. The Chronicle interpreted the new data request form, entitled Request for Public Personnel Information from SCSU, to be a departure from SCSU's previous policy.

Mr. Anfinson characterized the contents of the request form as follows:

First, certain public personnel data (those listed in the top portion of the form) are available for viewing . . . at no charge.' The minimum charge for copies is $1.00 plus 10rsaquo; per copy page.' I assume that this means that one may look at personnel data on the first list without charge, but that copies of the computer printout cost $1.00 plus 10rsaquo;/page.

Second, all [o]ther personnel information' (as listed on the lower portion of the form) is available on request for a minimum charge of $5.00 paid at the time of request, and a 10rsaquo; per copy page' fee. All of the information listed in the second section also appears to be public personnel data.

Finally, the form states, If your request requires a computer printout, the minimum charge will be $25.00.' While the scope of this requirement is somewhat ambiguous, our guess is that it covers only the public personnel data listed on the lower half of the form that is, presumably the $25.00 fee applies only to a computer printout containing those data. However, we are not clear how this fee differs from the $5.00 fee referred to earlier.

The Commissioner agrees with Mr. Anfinson's description of what the data request form appears to state about charges for viewing or receiving copies of public data.

In her response to the Commissioner, Ms. Wilson stated that the form was new but the policy was not. According to Ms. Wilson, the purpose of updating the form was to clarify which public personnel data are available for public inspection at two SCSU locations.

Ms. Wilson stated:

The cost we charge for copying has not changed for several years even though the actual costs have risen. At the time the cost was set, for copied information that did not require a computer printout, the cost was based on a calculation of a prorated portion of the salary of the lowest paid office employee who would be doing the copying for an estimated minimum amount of time plus the cost of copier use, paper, toner, etc. Computer printouts are generally necessary only for voluminous, extensive requests and the cost is based on the prorated portion of the salary of the lowest paid computer technician who must write the program to retrieve the information and run the computer, plus the cost of the computer use, paper, print, etc.