Civics: Raising the cost of taxpayer funded transparency

Andrew Capps:

Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory has raised the price of transparency at Lafayette Consolidated Government with a new fee for public records that appears to violate the Home Rule Charter. 

Guillory’s administration has embraced a recent change in state law that allows local governments to charge the public for “electronic transmission” of public records. 

In the past, LCG has not charged for electronic records, and it has typically only levied fees for physical copies or for CDs to deliver large amounts of records. 

But Guillory recently implemented a new $1 per page charge to deliver any digital public records, including by email or through thumb drives and CDs. The change comes without approval from Lafayette’s city and parish councils, a likely violation of Lafayette’s Home Rule Charter.