AGO 97052.

• Court: Nebraska

Nebraska Attorney General Opinions 1997. AGO 97052. DATE: October 7, 1997SUBJECT: 1997 Neb. Laws LB 590; Amount of Fees for Electronic Access to Public Records; Necessity for Public Hearings on Such Fees REQUESTED BY: Scott Moore, Nebraska Secretary of State Chairman, State Records BoardWRITTEN BY: Don Stenberg, Attorney General Dale A. Comer, Assistant Attorney General Under 1997 Neb. Laws LB 590, § 8, the State Records Board (the "Board") "may establish reasonable fees for electronic access to public records through the [electronic] gateway." Under § 9 of that same bill, "[a]ny state agency desiring to enter into an agreement to or otherwise provide electronic access to public records through a gateway for a fee shall make a written request for approval to the board." As we understand it from the materials you provided to us, the Department of Motor Vehicles (the "Department") has recently presented the Board with a request to charge fees for electronic access to certain motor vehicle title registration and lien information involving both fees for batch processing of information requests and individual interactive searches. That request from the Department has prompted you to pose two questions to us, both of which are discussed below. 1. Permissible Fees Under LB 590. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 60-308 (Cum. Supp. 1996) deals with certain motor vehicle title records and provides, as is pertinent: The Department of Motor Vehicles shall keep a record of each vehicle registered, alphabetically by name of the owner, with cross reference in each instance to the registration number assigned to such vehicle. . . . . The department shall furnish a copy of the record of a registered or titled vehicle to any applicant after receiving from the applicant the name on the registration, the license plate number, the vehicle identification number, or the title number of a vehicle. A fee of one dollar shall be charged for the copy. The Department has now submitted an application to the Board which proposes a total fee of $2.00 for individual motor vehicle record searches through the electronic or internet access to those records, based upon the statutory fee of $1.00 set out in § 60-308 and an additional $1.00 fee for electronic access. You are concerned that this proposal is in contravention of that portion of § 8 of LB 590 which provides that...