Mishawaka Common Council considers prohibiting commercial use of public records

MISHAWAKA, Ind. -- The City of Mishawaka Common Council had a first reading at Mon. evening’s regular meeting for ordinance 2025-20, a proposal to prohibit the use of public records for commercial purposes.

“Indiana law has long authorized local communities to pass an ordinance that deals with these type of commercial requests… whether it’s sold or not, if it’s used for commercial purposes, the statute allows us to regulate that... this ordinance is also very clear, as is the statute, that this type of provision would not have a negative impact on the ability of the public or the news media or academic researchers or nonprofits to be able to request the information,” said Mishawaka Common Council President, Gregg Hixenbaugh.

If passed, the city will still fulfill requests following APRA, or the Access to Public Records Act policy. The change from the proposed ordinance would have to do with what people are allowed to do with those records once they are given.

“Unlike some other ordinances that have been considered recently in the broader community, this proposed ordinance really has a narrow focus, and it’s designed to address those public records requests that are submitted by commercial interests… We certainly want to provide people with the information that they have requested, as is allowable under the law, but we also want to balance that against the administrative burden that it places on our employees,” said Hixenbaugh.

He explained commercial use requests are coming from companies and other entities who are looking to use records received through the request process for things like soliciting business or selling the information, and recently, they’ve been getting requests that span back several years, putting extra work on city employees.

"It attempts to strike a balance between those…legitimate…non-objectionable requests for public information, but to really try to focus in on those more cumbersome, burdensome, commercial requests that really, in essence, asks our governmental employees to become unpaid… researchers for commercial concerns,” said Hixenbaugh.

The next reading will be held at the following Mishawaka Common Council meeting, where public comment should be made available.