County denies request for copies of land records

FARMINGTON — A request from a business for copies of electronic land records from the Franklin County Registry of Deeds’ database has been denied.

County Attorney Frank Underkuffler denied the Freedom of Access Act request Tuesday in his response to a letter received last Friday from attorney Sigmund Schutz on behalf of his client, MacImage of Maine LLC from Cumberland Foreside. An answer was expected by this Thursday or else they would consider the request denied and appeal that denial to Maine Superior Court, Schutz wrote.

Schutz was seeking a response to MacImage’s initial request dated Sept. 25 for copies of the county’s land records with the intention to expand its Web site to give one-stop access to all land records in Maine. Viewing the Web site would be free but MacImage would charge for a copy from their Web site.

Register of Deeds Susan A. Black acknowledged the request but stated time was needed to determine a reasonable fee and whether her office was capable of providing the large amount of data.

More than 20 days later, MacImage had not received the copies or an estimated cost prompting the letter from their attorney.

Now it will be up to MacImage owner John Simpson to decide whether to file against Franklin County. He has no option but to file, Schutz said Wednesday in response to the denial. It’s disappointing, he added.

MacImage has already fought one court case in Hancock County over the $1.50 per page fee charged by that county. The court sided with MacImage and determined it was not a reasonable fee for a request for land records that includes thousands of pages electronically scanned.

Although the Hancock case makes a statement regarding the cost for copying, it doesn’t address the right to know, Underkuffler said Wednesday regarding the denial.

The Freedom of Access Act from 1975 has been misconstrued and confuses people, he said. When the government does something, the public has the right to know. It’s a legitimate concern in any democracy.

Although deeds are recorded for public display and are accessible to the public, it’s not a government transaction unless the town, county, state government is involved in a property transaction, he said.

Registry of Deeds also operates under an older Register of Deeds statue that requires keeping the deed on display but doesn’t put the register under any obligation to copy it, he said. The staff does that as a public service for a small fee but a deed is a private transaction between two private parties.

“The county is under no obligation to reproduce private transactions on demand to private companies to be sold,” he said.

The records are accessible on the county Web site for anyone in the world 24/7, said Schutz while questioning whether counties can monopolize that access and the right of counties to generate revenue from providing copies.

“Operating costs for registry staff and technology is funded by recording fees,” he said. “Fees for copying go to fund other unrelated county operations.”

Franklin County has spent 25 years at a public cost of $2,567,669.42 for staff, equipment and the facility to create the database, Underkuffler wrote.

“If the Franklin County commissioners elect to sell you the registry’s database, they would do so at a reasonable price, taking into account the public’s cost of compiling and storing that database,” Underkuffler wrote.

All Maine counties have been sent the request and some have denied it or taken more time to review it, Schutz said.

Simpson, of MacImage, is interested in talking and working through these issues with the county, he added.

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