AUGUSTA (AP) – An Aroostook County police department that charged $8 per page for copies of a public document would be blocked from such abuses if a revision of Maine’s Freedom of Access laws makes it through the Legislature.

The proposal, which awaits further action Wednesday, also includes protections for municipalities, such as the York County town that was hit with 1,700 requests for public documents by an angry resident who had been denied a building permit.

The bill is the product of negotiations by a diverse panel that included municipal and school officials, legislators, news media, county government, police and the public.

The Committee to Study Compliance with Maine’s Freedom of Access Laws was formed after a statewide audit of public records in 2002 showed a lack of compliance with Maine’s 45-year-old public access and public records laws.

Maine news organizations including newspapers, TV stations and The Associated Press participated in the audit.

The review brought to light a policy of the Presque Isle police station to charge $8 for the first page of its police log and $1 for every page after that. In nearby Caribou, police charged $6 a page.

But Maine law allows abuses against towns too. In Shapleigh, for example, a disgruntled landowner flooded the town with 1,700 freedom of information requests without having to compensate it for many hours of staff time needed to assemble the records.

The lengthy bill before lawmakers addresses cases like the above and strengthens the existing law in other ways, Judy Meyer, a member of the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition, said Tuesday.

The measure, which received routine initial approval in the House Monday, culminated contentious debates among the participants, said Meyer.

“We talked a lot about privacy versus the public interest,” said Meyer.

But ultimately the public officials saw “that conducting the people’s business in the open is as important to them as it is to the public,” said Meyer, managing editor at the Lewiston Sun Journal.

The bill says public officials must cite state laws giving them the authority to go into closed, executive session. But it also allows flexibility for town officials who aren’t well-versed in the law.

Officials who are imprecise in citing legal reasons for their closed meeting are not in violation of the law, provided the meeting was held legally.

The bill would allow a “reasonable” time for a town to produce a public document. Under present law, a municipality has no limit, Meyer said.

It also says public bodies must charge reasonable fees, but the issue of whether to cap copying fees was set aside for further study.

A new provision in the law authorizes towns to recoup costs of searching for information requested by the public and compiling it.

After the first hour of staff time spent searching, the agency or official may charge up to $10 per hour for staff services for each request.

Finally, the bill calls for a list of exceptions to the public records law to avoid disputes over whether a request is covered by the law.

“Based on a cursory review,” said Meyer, “there are probably 500 exceptions” to the Freedom of Access law. Legal analysts for the Legislature will compile the list, and such reviews will be conducted at least every 10 years.

The 2002 audit, which included scores of visits to police departments, municipal offices and school district offices in all 16 counties, found spotty compliance with Maine’s Freedom of Access laws, especially among police departments.

In response, the Legislature passed a law last year requiring each municipal, county and state law enforcement agency to have a written policy on how to deal with Freedom of Access requests and somebody who is trained in the law.

“As far as I can tell, there has been close to 100 percent compliance,” said Meyer.

AP-ES-04-06-04 1610EDT