FARMINGTON -- Franklin County has denied a Freedom of Access request from a private company that wants direct access to the registry of deeds' electronic database.

MacImage of Maine LLC plans to expand its Web site to include the deeds data from every Maine registry and resell the information to the public at a lower cost than what counties currently charge.

Franklin County is not disputing that the deeds on file are public records and can be openly viewed. But the county's attorney, Frank Underkuffler, in a letter to MacImage's attorney made public Thursday, argues there is no obligation to hand over the passwords and user names needed to access the database that the county has compiled.

The right-to-know law is intended to ensure that public proceedings are done openly and that government records are open to public inspection.

"I am not sure how one can argue, with a straight face, that 'transparent government' requires that records of purely private transactions in the custody of a governmental entity be copied upon the request of another private party," he wrote.

"My position is that if a document is used in a governmental transaction...you have the mandatory duty of reproducing it upon a private party's request," he said Thursday.

Underkuffler has computed that more than $2.6 million in public money has been spent by the Franklin County Registry of Deeds since Jan. 1, 1984 to create and maintain the deeds registry.

It is that investment of obtaining, producing and storing the images being transmitted that should be used to come up with a "reasonable cost," Underkuffler said.

In September, a Superior Court judge in Hancock County ruled that documents in Registry of Deeds offices throughout Maine are public.

Following the ruling, MacImage announced plans to expand its www.RegistryofDeeds.com Web site to provide access to all land records -- deeds, mortgages, liens, etc. -- throughout the state of Maine.

The Superior Court decision set a precedent for registry of deeds offices across Maine that had refused to provide bulk access to electronic copies of its records, according to MacImage's attorney, Sigmund Schutz.

On Thursday, Schutz said Underkuffler was making a "novel" approach to the issue but that it conflicts with what the Superior Court has already ordered.

"If this goes to court, it is highly likely (Franklin County) will lose," he said. "A judge has already determined that registry records are subject to the Freedom of Access Act and the standards by which fees can be determined."

"The issue really is that counties want to retain all the revenue from selling copies of public records," Schutz said. "All registry functions are funded by recording fees and they are charging for copies of public records to fund other completely unrelated operations."

MacImage has offered to pay counties for any costs incurred in transferring their electronic deeds records, now being managed by a handful of private recording software vendors.

Schutz said MacImage is considering its legal options with other counties since so far, none have fully complied with the Freedom of Access requests. Some are still considering and others have retained counsel.

"We already have a court decision that disagrees with Franklin County and the only way to resolve this may be to take them to court. That is a decision that has not been made at this point," he said.

Two weeks ago, Maine's Legislative Council accepted two research bills that would prevent for-profit companies from buying land records from county offices and reselling them for a "significantly different" price.

Betty Jespersen -- 778-6991

bjespersen@centralmaine.com