John Simpson, Owner & General Manager, MacImage of Maine LLC
5 Island View Drive, Cumberland Maine 04110
services to Maine Registries of Deeds and public users of land records that save people
time and money. MacImage is a small Maine business, but our products and services
have typically been years ahead of much larger out-of-state competitors. MacImage was
the first company in the Nation to provide Internet access to a registry of deeds’ entire
collection of land records. Presently, ten years after that accomplishment only one other
Maine county has come close to digitizing all its land records.
unless the parties rethink their positions, talk to each other and attempt to find middle
ground. Fortunately, however, there are good settlement options that can address
virtually every concern the Counties and MacImage have identified.
best interest of each County and its taxpayers, complies with every aspect of the law and
provides an opportunity for my company to continue in business.
unfairly at taxpayer expense. Registers of deeds will not be required to do more work,
and there will be no negative financial impact on county budgets. In fact, county revenue
could increase. If this sounds too good to be true, call me. Ask me questions. Suggest
changes. I will put it all in writing and guarantee it.
why? Does he or she really think you will disclose some secret facts and compromise the
case? Or, could your county possibly save tens of thousands of dollars by negotiating a
sensible, win-win solution before trial.
hired experts try to explain why copying public records from one hard drive to another
could cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. County legal bills for this trial could
easily total more than half a million dollars. And, the trial will cost some counties more
than the revenue their registry websites generate in a year. Ask yourself:exactly how
will this benefit taxpayers?
and logical explanation. Is it really believable that MacImage could make a fortune at
taxpayer expense by reselling county records? If that were true, why has no one else
taxpayers want, but the counties cannot provide?
land records website. Do counties have staff with the technical expertise to provide this
service? If not, whom would they hire to provide the service and how much will it cost
taxpayers? Will the company hired to provide this service create jobs in your county?
retrospect, I probably should have used another approach. However, for years I have
tried to convince county commissioners and registers of deeds of the merits of a statewide
land records website and the value of my company’s services. Time after time county
officials ignored proposals and bids from my company that could have enabled their
registries to provide better services at significantly lower costs.
or try something new that would likely face resistance. I chose not to give up.
county land records. In that letter, I explained my intention was to build a single website
that would provide access to all Maine land records. Currently, there are separate
websites for each county’s registry of deeds. Persons doing property title research in
several counties must sign up for accounts with each county and search records in each
county separately. In addition, most counties have not yet digitized all their records. As
a result, title research is labor-intensive and costs Mainers much more than it should.
believed, based on many years of experience and conversations with dozens of title
researchers would be very valuable. I knew the counties had for many years relied on
revenue from selling copies of land records. Thus, I expected my request for electronic
records might be met with resistance by counties concerned about losing copy revenue to
a competing statewide land records website. However, I also knew from experience that
the revenue issue could be successfully addressed.
copy revenue. We did this by first working in partnership with the County to digitize all
its land records. Our services cost the County several hundred thousand dollars less than
any other vendor would have charged, and we created several jobs in the County by
hiring and training local people to scan and index documents. In addition to saving the
County a large amount of money, MacImage built a website for Hancock County that
doubled its registry copy revenue by increasing the number of people who purchased
copies from a few dozen to several thousand.
The County earned more revenue from its website than most other counties while
providing a valuable service to more people than all the other counties combined.
MacImage also benefited from the partnership by receiving a share of Hancock County’s
considerable website revenue.
new register of deeds decided the County would be better off going it alone. The
Register also decided not to pay MacImage for prior work worth more than $70,000.
There are many other details, but to make a long story short, MacImage had to sue
Hancock County in order to finally get paid, and efforts to re-establish a positive
relationship have so far failed. Hancock County now earns tens of thousands of dollars
less each year from its website than it did when the County was working with MacImage.
for Land Records.
markets could not function and people could not obtain mortgages if land records were
not public. Thus, land records archived in registries of deeds are clearly public records.
Maine’s Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) limits the fees government may charge for
copies of public records to the cost of copying. However, some county officials have
claimed that land records should be exempt from the FOAA’s limits on copy fees and
that provisions in section 751 of Title 33 permit counties to set much higher fees.
case, the court seemed to assume that both statutes
could apply (the FOAA and section 751 of Title 33), and the Court’s holding reflected the
legal principal that overlapping statutes should be construed harmoniously if possible.
history of section 751 and established a standard for setting copy fees which, as a
practical matter, is nearly the same as the standard set in the FOAA. This approach made
it unnecessary for the Court to specifically address the question of whether counties must
set copy fees which comply with the FOAA. However, on August 3, 2010, the Court did
directly address that question in response to a motion by MacImage for partial summary
judgment. The Court held unequivocally that, unless new and compelling facts are
presented which prove otherwise, county land records are public records as defined by
and governed by Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.
court will ultimately rule the current county fees for bulk copies of electronic land
records are excessive and will order the counties to provide copies of the records
MacImage requested for a relatively modest fee. The current case involves essentially
the same facts as the Hancock County case and is being considered in the same court by
the same judge and the applicable law is the same. Thus, the result of the current
litigation is relatively certain. It seems the only thing we do not know is how much
taxpayer money will be spent attempting to delay the Court’s inevitable ruling.
the Counties to improve access to public land records while addressing all county
concerns, especially those related to revenue. The outline below contains the key terms
of an agreement I believe would be a win-win solution for all parties involved, except
perhaps, the trial lawyers.
outline represents my best attempt to propose a win-win agreement, but the list of terms
is not set in cement. Counties should feel free to suggest changes or propose alternative
settlement terms.
party. [If things don't work out, a county can get out of the agreement in only a year’s time.]
County will agree to not sell copies for prices below its current copy prices.
existing document images and index data.
rescanned or re-indexed documents).
based on each county's recording volume in the prior year.
immediately upon delivery of the data files.
sales of that county's records.
website for free for the county and pay that County a 70 percent share of the website’s profits. In
addition, MacImage will guarantee that the county's share of profits is equal to or greater
.
daily updates, and MacImage will pay the actual cost of programming required to provide daily
updates (such programming may not be necessary).
persons or companies. However, while this agreement is in effect the County will agree not to
provide copies in bulk to any other entity at lower prices than the prices specified in this
agreement.
Aroostook County
Cumberland County
Franklin County
Hancock County
Kennebec County
Knox County
Lincoln County
Oxford County
Penobscot County
Piscataquis County
Sagadahoc County
Somerset County
Waldo County
Washington County
York County
$6,300
$23,200
$3,000
$6,700
$10,700
$5,200
$4,100
$9,200
$14,500
$2,000
$2,900
$5,000
$3,300
$4,000
$18,200
add many thousands of dollars to the above amounts.
current litigation because it is MacImage of Maine’s objective to eventually work cooperatively
with all Maine Counties.
proposal with an open mind.
options please call me at 846-0921 (or send an email to macimage@maine.rr.com) before
August 20 (this Friday).
General Manager and Owner
MacImage of Maine LLC
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