Chapter 2.40
PUBLIC RECORDS
Sections:
2.40.010 Authority and purpose.
2.40.020 City of Brier description – Contact information – Public records officer.
2.40.030 Availability of public records.
2.40.040 Processing of public records requests – General.
2.40.060 Costs of providing copies of public records.
2.40.070 Review of denials of public records.
2.40.010 Authority and purpose.
A. RCW 42.56.070(1) requires the city to make available for inspection and copying nonexempt public records in accordance with published rules. The Public Records Disclosure Act defines “public record” to include any “writing containing information relating to the conduct of government or the performance of any governmental or proprietary function prepared, owned, used, or retained” by the agency. RCW 42.56.070(2) requires the city to set forth for informational purposes every law, in addition to the Act, that exempts or prohibits the disclosure of public records held by the city.
B. The purpose of this chapter is to establish the procedures that the city will follow to provide full access to public records. This chapter provides information to persons wishing to request access to public records of the city and establish processes for both requestors and city staff that are designed to best assist members of the public in obtaining such access.
C. The purpose of the Act is to provide the public full access to information concerning the conduct of government, mindful of individuals’ privacy rights and the desirability of the efficient administration of government. The Act and this chapter will be interpreted in favor of disclosure. In carrying out its responsibilities under the Act, the city will be guided by the provisions of the Act describing its purposes and interpretation. (Ord. 366 § 1(Exh. A)(part), 2009: Ord. 271 § 1, 1994. Formerly 2.88.010)
2.40.020 City of Brier description – Contact information – Public records officer.
A. The city is a municipal corporation of the state of Washington. The City Hall is located at 2901 228th Street S.W., Brier, Washington.
B. Any person wishing to request access to public records of the city, or seeking assistance in making such a request should contact the city clerk/treasurer, who serves as the public records officer of the city:
City of Brier
Attention: City Clerk/Treasurer
2901 228th Street S.W.
Brier, Washington 98036
Telephone: (425) 775-5440
Fax: (425) 672-9025
Information is also available at the city website at http://www.ci.brier.wa.us.
C. The public records officer will oversee compliance with the Act but another city staff member may process the request. Therefore, in these rules, the “public records officer” includes the designee. The public records officer and the city will provide the fullest assistance to requestors; create and maintain for use by the public and city officials an index to public records of the city; ensure that public records are protected from damage or disorganization; and prevent fulfilling public records requests from causing excessive interference with essential functions of the city. (Ord. 366 § 1(Exh. A)(part), 2009)
2.40.030 Availability of public records.
A. Public records are available for inspection and copying during normal business hours of the city, which are Monday through Friday, eight a.m. to five p.m., excluding legal holidays. Records must be inspected at City Hall.
B. Due to the small size of city staff, maintaining an index of public records as provided for in RCW 42.56.070(3) would be unduly burdensome. The city, however, maintains indexes of agreements, resolutions, and ordinances. The indexes may be accessed at City Hall, by requesting access to them from the public records officer.
C. The city will maintain its records in a reasonably organized manner. The city will take reasonable actions to protect records from damage and disorganization. A requestor shall not take city records from the City Hall without the permission of the public records officer. A variety of records are available on the city website at http://www.ci.brier.wa.us. Requestors are encouraged to view the documents available on the website prior to submitting a records request.
D. Any person wishing to inspect or copy public records of the city should make the request in writing on the city request form, or by letter, fax or e-mail addressed to the public records officer and including the following information:
1. Name of requestor;
2. Address of requestor;
3. Other contact information, including telephone number and any e-mail address;
4. Identification of the public records adequate for the public records officer to locate the records; and
5. The date and time of day of the request.
E. If the requestor wishes to have copies of the records made instead of simply inspecting them, he or she should so indicate and make arrangements to pay for copies of the records or a deposit. Pursuant to BMC 2.40.060, standard photocopies will be provided at fifteen cents per page.
F. The public records officer may accept requests for public records that contain the above information by telephone or in person. If the public records officer accepts such a request, he or she will confirm receipt of the information and the substance of the request in writing. (Ord. 366 § 1(Exh. A)(part), 2009: Ord. 271 § 5, 1994. Formerly 2.88.050)
2.40.040 Processing of public records requests – General.
A. The city is charged by the Act with adopting rules which provide for how it will provide full access to public records, protect records from damage or disorganization, prevent excessive interference with other essential functions of the agency, provide fullest assistance to requestors, and provide the most timely possible action on public records requests. The public records officer will process requests in the order allowing the most requests to be processed in the most efficient manner.
B. Within five business days of receipt of the request, the public records officer will do one or more of the following:
1. Make the records available for inspection or copying;
2. If copies are requested and payment of the copies is made at the time of the request or terms of payment are agreed upon, send the copies to the requestor;
3. Provide a reasonable estimate of when records will be available; or
4. If the request is unclear or does not sufficiently identify the requested records, request clarification from the requestor. Such clarification may be requested and provided by telephone. The public records officer or designee may revise the estimate of when records will be available; or
5. Deny the request.
C. If the city does not respond in writing within five business days of receipt of the request for disclosure, the requestor should consider contacting the public records officer to determine the reason for the failure to respond.
D. If the requested records contain information that may affect rights of others and may be exempt from disclosure, the public records officer may, prior to providing the records, give notice to such others whose rights may be affected by the disclosure. Such notice should be given so as to make it possible for those other persons to contact the requestor and ask him or her to revise the request, or, if necessary, seek an order from a court to prevent or limit the disclosure. The notice to the affected persons will include a copy of the request.
E. Some records are exempt from disclosure, in whole or in part. If the city believes that a record is exempt from disclosure and should be withheld, the public records officer will state the specific exemption and provide a brief explanation of why the record or a portion of the record is being withheld. If only a portion of a record is exempt from disclosure, but the remainder is not exempt, the public records officer will redact the exempt portions, provide the nonexempt portions, and indicate to the requestor why portions of the record are being redacted.
F. Consistent with other demands, the city shall promptly provide space to inspect public records. No member of the public may remove a document from the viewing area or disassemble or alter any document. The requestor shall indicate which documents he or she wishes the agency to copy.
G. The requestor must claim or review the assembled records within thirty days of the city notification to him or her that the records are available for inspection or copying. The agency will notify the requestor in writing of this requirement and inform the requestor that he or she should contact the city to make arrangements to claim or review the records. If the requestor or a representative of the requestor fails to claim or review the records within the thirty-day period or make other arrangements, the city may close the request and re-file the assembled records. Other public records requests can be processed ahead of a subsequent request by the same person for the same or almost identical records, which can be processed as a new request.
H. After inspection is complete, the public records officer shall make the requested copies or arrange for copying.
I. When the request is for a large number of records, the public records officer will provide access for inspection and copying in installments, if he or she reasonably determines that it would be practical to provide the records in that way. If, within thirty days, the requestor fails to inspect the entire set of records or one or more of the installments, the public records officer may stop searching for the remaining records and close the request.
J. When the inspection of the requested records is complete and all requested copies are provided, the public records officer will indicate that the city has completed a diligent search for the requested records and made any located nonexempt records available for inspection.
K. When the requestor either withdraws the request or fails to fulfill his or her obligations to inspect the records or pay the deposit or final payment for the requested copies, the public records officer will close the request and indicate to the requestor that the city has closed the request.
L. If, after the city has informed the requestor that it has provided all available records, the city becomes aware of additional responsive documents existing at the time of the request, it will promptly inform the requestor of the additional documents and provide them on an expedited basis. (Ord. 366 § 1(Exh. A)(part), 2009: Ord. 271 § 6, 1994. Formerly 2.88.060)
2.40.050 Exemptions.
A. The Act provides that a number of types of public records are exempt from public inspection and copying. Some exemptions under the Act that may apply to public records are as follows:
1. Preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations and intra-agency memoranda in which opinions are expressed or policies formulated or recommended, except if the record is cited the city;
2. Personal information in files maintained for city employees to the extent that disclosure would violate their privacy. Privacy is the disclosure of information that (a) would be highly offensive to a reasonable person and (b) is not of legitimate concern to the public.
3. Specific intelligence information and specific investigative records compiled by investigative, law enforcement, and penology agencies, the nondisclosure of which is essential to law enforcement or for the protection of any person’s right to privacy;
4. Information revealing the identity of persons who are witnesses to or victims of crime or who file complaints with investigative, law enforcement or penology agencies, if disclosure would endanger any person’s life, physical safety or property. However, if at the time a complaint is filed the complainant, victim or witness indicates a desire for disclosure or nondisclosure, such desire shall govern;
5. Applications for public employment, including the names of applicants, resumes and other related materials submitted with respect to an applicant;
6. Valuable formulae, designs, drawings, computer source code or object code, and research data obtained by the city within five years of the request for disclosure when disclosure would produce private gain and public loss;
7. Records which are relevant to a controversy to which the city is a party but which records would not be available to another party under the rules of pretrial discovery for causes pending in the superior courts or, even if available, could constitute a waiver of attorney-client privilege or disclosure of attorney work product;
8. The residential addresses and residential telephone numbers of employees or volunteers of the city which are held by the city in personnel records, employment or volunteer rosters, or mailing lists of employees or volunteers;
9. The residential addresses and residential telephone numbers of the customers of the city’s utilities contained in the records or lists held by the city.
In addition, documents are exempt from disclosure if any other statute exempts or prohibits disclosure. Requestors should be aware that some public records are protected by the attorney-client privilege of RCW 5.60.060(2)(a).
B. The city is prohibited by statute from disclosing lists of individuals for commercial purposes. (Ord. 366 § 1(Exh. A)(part), 2009: Ord. 271 § 8, 1994. Formerly 2.88.080)
2.40.060 Costs of providing copies of public records.
A. There is no fee for inspecting public records. A requestor may obtain standard black and white photocopies for fifteen cents per page and, for color copies, the actual amount charged by the vendor providing color copies to the city.
B. Before beginning to make the copies, the public records officer may require a deposit of up to ten percent of the estimated costs of copying all the records selected by the requestor. The public records officer may also require the payment of the remainder of the copying costs before providing all the records, or the payment of the costs of copying an installment before providing that installment. The city will not charge sales tax when it makes copies of public records.
C. For actual staff time spent on making photocopies for the requestor, in excess of an hour per request, the city will charge the requestor, in addition to the per page photocopy charge, for such actual staff time in excess of one hour at the hourly rate, without benefits, paid to the staff person.
D. Where, in the judgment of the public records officer, it is reasonable to send a request to an off-site vendor for copying, the city will charge the requestor:
1. The actual amount charged by the off-site vendor to the city for copies made; and
2. The actual time spent going to or coming from the off-site vender, for purposes of processing the request, on the basis of the hourly rate paid to the staff member going to or coming from the off-site vendor.
E. The cost of electronic copies of records shall be forty cents for information on a floppy disk and on a CD-ROM.
F. The city shall also charge actual costs of mailing, including the cost of the shipping container.
G. Payment shall be made by cash, check, or money order to the city. (Ord. 366 § 1(Exh. A)(part), 2009: Ord. 271 § 9, 1994. Formerly 2.88.090)
2.40.070 Review of denials of public records.
A. Any person who objects to the initial denial or partial denial of a records request may petition in writing (including e-mail) to the public records officer for a review of that decision. The petition shall include a copy of or reasonably identify the written statement by the public records officer denying the request.
B. The public records officer shall promptly provide the petition and any other relevant information to the city attorney. The city attorney will immediately consider the petition and either affirm or reverse the denial within two business days following the city’s receipt of the petition, or within such other time as city and the requestor mutually agree to.
C. Any person may obtain court review of denials of public records requests pursuant to RCW 42.56.550 at the conclusion of two business days after the initial denial regardless of the internal administrative appeal. (Ord. 366 § 1(Exh. A)(part), 2009)