IS THERE SYSTEMATIC obstruction of access to public records in Rhode Island? The Rhode Island Statewide Coalition Foundation believes that the answer is yes.

The foundation, whose mission is “to increase transparency, integrity and accountability in Rhode Island State and local government,” has found that access to public records in Rhode Island often involves fees so exorbitant that the intent of Open Records laws is undermined. The answer may be legislation to require that public records be made available electronically.

Based in Charlestown, RISC Foundation has launched an independent transparency Web site, TheMoneyTrail.org, from which taxpayers may download state, city, town and school-district documents to which they are entitled by law.

In our quest to acquire basic budgets, payrolls, contracts, comprehensive plans, tax-delinquency records and foreclosure statements, we have discovered an unsettling reality: Obtaining public records in Rhode Island is not only difficult and bureaucratic, but often exceedingly costly. In our experience, demands for payment have ranged from a few dollars in some towns to several hundred in others, reaching the highest estimated charge of $4,500 in Coventry.

The Access to Public Records Act (APRA) assures citizen access to documents — and The Money Trail has obtained some at no cost — but providers of public records may, if they so choose, charge 15 cents per copied page, plus $15/hour labor charges ($30/hour overtime) to retrieve and photocopy it. While some districts readily provide documents without charge, fees in other towns are wildly inconsistent. Town clerks and managers often charge for estimated “search and retrieval” time and then add copy and labor charges.

Furthermore, in an increasingly paperless society, all documents we have sought should be readily available by e-mail — at no cost. In fact, a simple one-time scan and conversion to .pdf format facilitates instant transmission forevermore — nothing could be easier! Instead, every request sets off yet another costly retrieval and duplication of the identical hard-copy documents.

Examples of the high price tag of public information would be amusing if they were not so disturbing. East Providence requested $90 for search and retrieval of its Comprehensive Plan and $75 for printing it — and these fees for a document that is available online or free of charge from most other Rhode Island municipalities. Even a supervisor at the state Department of Administration bemoaned that eight town comprehensive plans are unavailable electronically. It is incomprehensible that, in 2008, that the department has neither a scanner nor the software to convert simple documents to .pdf format.

While state and municipal offices are required to provide electronic versions of documents upon request if they exist in that format already, Hopkinton’s town manager outrageously requested $35 to e-mail the town’s comprehensive plan to The Money Trail.

In terms of hard copies, the Westerly School Department required a $30 fee for a list of vendor contracts over $10,000; North Providence wanted more than $2,000 for the foundation’s requested documents; Exeter charged $2.10 for a profit-and-loss report, plus another $2.10 to fax it; and Smithfield demanded $644.10 for its school budgets, collective-bargaining agreements, and the name of the law firm that negotiated them. In Warwick, the cost of the tax roll was $125, while an eight-page list of tax sales carried a fee of $1.20.

The resistance to electronic documents does not originate with office managers, many of whom have told us that they have urged electronic conversion as a way to curb the constant headaches of responding to public-records requests.

The problem is Rhode Island’s insidious culture of concealment that manifests itself in state and local government. In this case, it results in impediments to open access and unnecessary frustration to taxpayers.

In fact, the RISC Foundation suggests that electronic distribution of public records might well save cash-strapped Rhode Island significant funds by reducing the number of employees now needed to copy and retrieve records. Quite simply, electronic processes streamline office procedures and reduce the need for surplus personnel. In a state teeming with state employees represented by powerful union lobbyists, there may be little commitment to realizing such efficiencies, however.

Although the RISC Foundation has offered to convert to electronic format the documents requested by The Money Trail — and has promised to share them at no charge with towns, cities, school districts and state offices — its proposal has been largely ignored.

As a result, the foundation plans to promote legislation this year to require that all public records be provided electronically upon citizen request. Documents would then be available in a cost-free, postage-free, paper-free and environmentally responsible manner. The state’s citizens deserve no less.

Harriet Lloyd is director of the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition Foundation’s Money Trail transparency project.