MANSFIELD -- How much would you pay for copies of five months' of e-mails between selectmen and Town Manager John D'Agostino?

That's the $68,400 question.

It's also the cash estimate that Mansfield's town attorney gave to self-styled town hall watchdog and selectman candidate George Dentino after he requested copies of e-mail between selectmen and D'Agostino between Nov. 1, 2003 and March 15, 2004, the date that Dentino filed his formal request.

Attorney Brian Winner said this week he recalls basing his estimate on input from town officials and state law.

Town officials estimated they would have to search and examine about 34,200 records and black out privileged information. The work would take about 1,710 hours and be done by a town employee earning $30 an hour.

`` Unfortunately, where things are so voluminous and we can't narrow them down to specific documents, these things become more expensive than the requester had anticipated,'' Winner said.

Dentino said he just wanted about 30 items from one source -- D'Agostino's hard drive.

`` I'm certainly not going to give them $68,000 for 30 emails,'' Dentino said. `` Does the town itself generate 35,000 e-mails?''

Charles Davis, executive director of the Freedom of Information Center at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, said the $68,400 estimate `` feels like somebody wet a finger and held it up to the wind.''

`` It certainly frustrates access. Fees like this are going to make citizens go away,'' Davis said. `` There's no question about it. It becomes a rich man's game.''

`` I would think the cost of a few hours of staff time and burning to a CD would be far, far less.''

The Legislature is considering a bill that would make e-mail and any real-time communication by a majority of a municipal board subject to the Open Meeting Law.

The bill received a favorable report from the joint state administration and regulatory oversight committee, a spokeswoman for state Rep. Antonio Cabral, D-New Bedford, the House chairman, said Thursday.

The bill is in the House clerk's office waiting for assignment, she said. Typically, state law allows municipalities to charge 20 cents to photocopy a page and 50 cents to print an electronic document, said Alan Cote, supervisor of records for the Secretary of State.

Municipalities may charge for the time spent searching records and deleting confidential information, Cote said. The fee must be based on the lowest paid employee capable of doing the work.

But, Cote said, `` It has to be a reasonable estimate.''

Dentino said he is willing to pay the fee allowed under the state law.

Bills exceeding that amount are deterrents to people wanting to look at public records, he said.

`` The law says 20 cents. I've been paying it for five years,'' Dentino said.

Winner said broad requests can generate large bills.

His office often urges people to be specific.

`` I've had requests where the people say, `Oh, that's what I really wanted,rquote'' Winner said.

Davis said other states allow municipalities to charge a reasonable fee for staff time, but not per page.

Burning files onto a CD is quicker than printing documents, Davis said.

`` It seems like they build bridges across rivers in 1,700 hours,'' he said. `` What he (the town attorney) is saying is they're going to have somebody stare at a computer for a year to provide e-mails between some dude and some (town officials).