Sweetwater County looks to adopt new public records rules

ROCK SPRINGS (WNE) — The Sweetwater County Commission during regular session on Tuesday, Jan. 6, unanimously agreed to publish a notice of intent to establish new rules and regulations in the handling of public records requests.

The proposed regulations would allow the county to charge for time spent by county employees in preparing any records requested.

According to Sweetwater County Clerk Cindy Swenson, residents of the county have 45 days to comment about the proposed rules. The deadline is March 2, and a public hearing will be on March 17, at which time the commissioners will decide if they wish to adopt the new rules.

According to Wyoming Statute 16-4-202, a records custodian can charge an applicant a “reasonable cost” for producing or creating a copy of an electronic public record for review or copying. The cost can include the time spent finding the requested documents, reviewing, sorting, redacting, formatting and compiling the records.

In addition, the proposed rule can assess any costs associated with the creation of a new electronic public record from existing data and the programming and computer services associated with it.

The county proposes the following production and construction costs for electronic public records:

$15.50 per hour for clerical and support staff time,

$30 an hour for information technology staff time,

$40 an hour for professional staff time, and

actual costs associated with programming and computer services.

The proposed fees for copying non-electronic public record include:

25 cents per black and white copy, standard and/or legal size

$1 per color copy, standard and/or legal size The cost for any other paper size, printing a photograph, utilization of an outside vendor for copying and other special instances will be assessed per the actual cost to provide these items according to the proposed resolution.

This story was published on Jan. 10, 2026.