Public Information

According to Montana Law, public information is any data prepared, owned, used, or retained by any public agency that is related to conducting official business.  A public record is any fixed collection or presentation of public information that the is retained by a State agency.  This website has been built to provide the public with an avenue to request public records.

 This may include:

• Bills;
• Legislative Drafts;
• Emails on State servers;
• And other records.

Please bear in mind that not all information may be retrievable through this portal.  While the Legislative Services looks forward to processing all appropriate requests, some information may not be produced here. Some examples include:

• Legislator Personal Email – Members of the Legislature may have their own personal email accounts outside of the legislative system. Information requests submitted to this portal cannot compel a Legislator to release his or her own personal correspondence. 
• Information Available Elsewhere – If public information or records are already publicly available a requester will be directed to that library. For example, if a requester is looking for a recording of a Legislative Committee meeting, the requester will be directed to the Bill Explorer.
• Information from Executive Branch Departments – This portal relates specifically to the activity of the Montana State Legislature. A requester seeking information on activities from agencies reporting to the Governor (i.e. Department of Justice, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, etc.) those requests should be submitted to the Office of Public Information Requests.
• Archival Information – Records that date back five years or older are typically held in the archives of the Montana Historical Society.
• Other Exceptions – Other statutory or legal exceptions may apply to Public Information Requests. In these cases, the Public Information Officer will contact the requester to explain the applicable exception.

According to the Montana Code Annotated, submitting an information request creates a public record.  As a result, all requests must include the First Name, Last Name, Physical Address, and Email Address of the requester.  If this information is not submitted the request will not be processed.  Requests submitted under the name of a business, organization, or anonymously are not sufficient.

The MCA allows public agencies to charge a $25 per hour fee to process and review all Public Information Requests before they are produced to the requester.  This fee may apply to the time it takes to research, gather, and review records before production.  A fee estimate will be provided to the requester and must be paid before any research begins. 

Legislative Services will not charge this fee if a request can be processed in a short amount of time.  For example, if a request identifies a specific record within a narrow time frame it will be fairly easy to produce.  On the other hand, a vague request within a large time frame may take a significant amount of time to process.  The more time it takes to process a request the larger the required fee.  It is, therefore, in the requester’s interest to provide a well-defined request. 

 A well-defined request will include:

• Very specific key words instead of vague phrases;
• A specific timeframe with clear start and end dates;
• Specific names, committees, or topics.

The easier it is for Legislative Services to understand what a requester is looking for, the smaller the associated fee is likely to be.

If you have any questions relating to the Public Information Request process please contact:

Thomas Hazen

Public Information Officer

Public.info@legmt.gov

(406)444-3597