While in the Deerfield town offices reviewing the manifest, I asked what a copy costs. It’s .006 cents or six-tenths of a cent. Yet the selectmen have adopted a policy stating any person wanting a copy shall pay 50 cents a page.
But the Right to Know law says the costs shall be no more than the cost to produce. If in fact the town posted all documents on the very expensive website our tax dollars paid for, then citizens could see, print whatever they want and no staff would be required. It seems like if the elected body in our town really wanted citizens to know, then a policy would be in place stating it would be posted on the website.
Oh yeah. NH Right to Know got the bill passed in the House Judiciary, and the Senate Judiciary Chair changed it to say towns “may” put it on the website. So why must we citizens who work all day take time off from our jobs to get copies during the town’s, school’s hours?
Ask former Sen. David Boutin and the New Hampshire Senate that changed a bill that would have given citizens access on the expensive web sites they pay for.
Harriet E. Cady
Deerfield