Rick Perry’s Email Available For $54/Day

Recap-
I am participating in a WikiFOIA open records project. Open records requests are being sent to all 50 governors to see if their interoffice email is available to the public.

I sent a open records request to Rick Perry. I asked for all emails to and from the Office of the Governor for four days.

$217 for email
I received a letter from Office of the Governor today. I was told today that it would cost $217 to produce these emails.

That cost includes 12 hours of staff time at $15 an hour plus an extra 20% “overhead” charge. Government employees require 12 hour to do what my Outlook program can do in 30 seconds. I can’t wait until they run my health care.

What Next?
Should I send the $217? Nah. I enjoy open records, but not $217 worth. I am considering asking for a waiver of the fee since this material primarily benefits the public. That is supposed to insulate costs in these requests. However, I’m not sure I want to spend the energy. After all, in the private sector I have to keep working to make money.

Labels: open records, Texas