Public records fees: TriMet is authorized under public records laws to recover its costs of making records available including locating, retrieving, and compiling requested records, reviewing, redacting, and segregating exempt material, supervising inspection of records, and duplicating, certifying, and mailing records. Fees for search time may be charged regardless of whether TriMet is able to locate the requested records or if the records located are subsequently determined to be exempt from disclosure.
Duplication fees: Printed and scanned copies shall be provided at $1.50 for the first page and $0.25 for each additional page. Duplication fees include materials and labor rendered during the duplication process.
Labor fees: Labor fees will be calculated at the affected personnel’s fully burdened hourly rate. Labor fees apply to requests that require more than a nominal amount of staff time.
Payment: TriMet will require payment in full prior to disclosure of records. TriMet reserves the right to require prepayment of estimated costs prior to commencing a records search. Acceptable forms of payment are by check or money order made payable to TriMet. If the estimated amount of charges exceeds $25, TriMet will provide the requestor with the estimated fee and will proceed only upon receipt of the requestor’s written confirmation to proceed.
Video requests: Video surveillance data is generally only available within a limited window of time before it is automatically overwritten by TriMet's video surveillance systems. Thus, requests for video must be submitted promptly. Most requests for on-board video will incur a minimum charge of $17.50 per pulled vehicle data pack. Labor charges to extract the requested data and/or to convert the data into a generally readable format will apply. TriMet will provide the requester with a cost estimate and will proceed only upon pre-payment of the estimated cost and receipt of the requestor's written confirmation to proceed.
Fee waivers: TriMet may reduce or waive fees if doing so is in the public interest because making the records available primarily benefits the general public. In order to have a request for waiver considered the requestor should, but is not required to provide a statement about how the release of the records affects the community or society as a whole in contrast to a concern or interest of a private individual or entity. All requests are evaluated on the circumstances as a whole, including the burden to TriMet in locating or preparing the records.
TriMet will waive fees for any request for records that incurs less than $10 in total fees, subject to one waiver per requestor per consecutive 90-day period.
