Chatham Borough, Township Both Reduce Fees for Photocopying Documents

Chatham Borough and Chatham Township have both reduced the price of making copies of government documents in the past month.

They have done so in accordance with a deadline an appeals court set for municipalities to begin charging "the actual costs of duplicating a record." The court made the ruling in February in Smith v. Hudson County, and set the deadline for municipalities to begin charging the reduced prices for July 1.

Both the borough and the township have done so.

In the past, they were charging the standard fee for copying documents—75 cents per page for the first 10 pages, 50 cents per page for the next 10 and 25 cents for each additional page.

But they slashed their prices July 1. The borough actually adopted an ordinance at a previous meeting setting the price at one cent per page, but Deputy Municipal Clerk Cathy Baldwin said yesterday it will adopt an ordinance setting the price at five cents in order to conform with state law.

The township, on the other hand, never previously adopted an ordinance setting the more expensive prices, and did not adopt an ordinance setting the lower prices.

But Deputy Clerk Greg LaConte said the township has been charging five cents for a standard size page and seven cents for pages legal and larger.

"Our administrative practice was consistent with the state law," LaConte said.

A Philadelphia Inquirer article said the state Legislature established a nickel as the uniform rate June 28. Gov. Chris Christie has yet to sign that into law.