MEMORANDUM 05-166

TO: MAYOR HORNADAY AND HOMER CITY COUNCIL

FROM: WALT WREDE, CITY MANAGER

DATE: OCTOBER 17, 2005

SUB.: INDIGENCY WITH REGARD TO RECORD REGULATION REVISIONS.

1.06 of the Regulations Concerning Public Record Inspections, states: If a person is unable to pay a fee, and signs an affidavit to the effect that he or she is indigent, then the City Manager will waive the copying fee and production fee, except when the City Manager, based upon reliable information, determines the affidavit of indigency is made in bad faith or fraudulently.

There have been a lot of questions regarding indigency this past year and staff has suggested, and I concur, that using the HHS Poverty Guidelines for Alaska is a good guideline to follow.

Annual Income as a Percent of current Health and Human Services (HHS) Poverty Guidelines for Alaska	Percent of fee reduced
1-100%	100% Waiver
101-149%	75% Waiver
150-174%	50% Waiver
175-199%	25% Waiver
200% plus	No Waiver

An application for indigency may be filed with the City Manager for waiving or partially waiving the costs of record reproduction. The City Manager may allow an applicant, who qualifies as an indigent, a reduced record reproduction fee, a payment plan or a waiver of the filing fee where the Manager is able to make a written finding, based on information provided by the applicant, that payment of the record reproduction fee would be a financial hardship. Based upon the information provided, the fee may be reduced or waived in accordance with the above scale.

Recommendation:

Approve the recommended revision to the indigency section of the City Manager's Record Regulations.

Fiscal Note: May create some reduction in record reproduction reimbusing revenue.