Database creator appeals for counties' land records

The businessman says he has been stonewalled in his bid to collect files from 13 Maine counties.

By MEGHAN V. MALLOY, Kennebec Journal November 11, 2009

A Cumberland-based business owner who intends to create a statewide database of land records has gone to court in an effort to compel 13 Maine counties to provide the records he needs.

John Simpson, owner and general manager of MacImage of Maine LLC, said he filed 13 appeals after being denied access or not getting timely responses to Freedom of Access Act requests for the records.

"It seems the counties' strategy is to delay and file endless motions, just doing what they can to drag this out," Simpson said.

MacImage plans to collect all titles and deeds from Maine's 16 counties and consolidate them in a commercial Web site.

Users would have access to multiple counties' deeds and titles simultaneously, rather than signing in and out of various databases that counties use to store their land records.

Under Maine's Freedom of Access Act, a public entity must provide requested public records, or cite a legal exemption for not doing so, within five working days of the request.

Simpson said he sent letters with his request on Sept. 25.

In the letters, he offered to meet with officials in each county to address their concerns – namely, he said, potential loss of revenue.

He said he did not get responses until well into October.

"Some counties will tell you they didn't deny (the land records), but they have constructively done so because they ignored me," Simpson said.

Piscataquis County sent a reply saying it was willing to work with him.

"They said they would offer me their records at the same price their vendor does for them," he said.

"That's fair. It's a high price, and I'm hoping we can work it out, but (the proposal) is fair."

Simpson said a handful of counties wrote back saying they would look into the matter, or just denied his request.
Beverly Bustin-Hatheway, president of the Maine Registers of Deeds Association and the Kennebec County register of deeds, said Tuesday that she was unaware of the appeals.

She referred questions to Kennebec County Administrator Robert Devlin, who said county officials responded to all of Simpson's requests "in a timely manner."

"It may not have been what he wanted to hear," Devlin said.

He said Kennebec County was determining what a reasonable fee would be for bulk sales.

"We have not slammed the door on him," Devlin said.

Devlin was a witness in a case involving MacImage and Hancock County after Simpson's company alleged that the county violated the Freedom of Access Act by not allowing MacImage to obtain the records at a reasonable fee, which was determined to be the cost of printing electronic files.

A judge in Cumberland County Superior Court ruled in favor of MacImage on Sept. 1.