Public record costs in Minnehaha County could be going up by 233 percent

County auditor says current rate to fulfill requests not keeping up with staff costs

South Dakota’s largest county is modernizing its open records policies, and that comes with a cost to the public for providing records.

The Minnehaha County Auditor’s Office next week will ask county commissioners to get on board with its request to hike the hourly rate it charges to fulfill a records request to $50 an hour.

Auditor Ben Kyte told The Dakota Scout Friday that the county’s existing open records policies haven’t been updated for more than a decade, and the $15 rate isn’t adequately reflecting the staff time it costs the county when performing those tasks.

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