Washington Administrative Code
Title 132M - Lower Columbia College
Chapter 132M-110 - Public records disclosure policy
Section 132M-110-020 - Definitions

(1) "Public record" includes 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 any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics. This definition does not include records that are not otherwise required to be retained by the college and are held by volunteers who:

(2) "Writing" means handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostating, photographing, and every other means of recording any form of communication or representation including, but not limited to, letters, words, pictures, sounds, or symbols, or combination thereof, and all papers, maps, magnetic or paper tapes, photographic films and prints, motion picture, film and video recordings, magnetic or punched cards, discs, drums, diskettes, sound recordings, and other documents including existing data compilations from which information may be obtained or translated.

(3) Relating to the "conduct of government" means to be a public record, a document must relate to the conduct of government or the performance of any governmental or proprietary function. Almost all records held by an agency relate to the conduct of government; however, some do not. A purely personal record having absolutely no relation to the conduct of government is not a public record. Even though a purely personal record might not be a public record, a record of its existence might be. For example, a record showing the existence of a purely personal email sent by an agency employee on an agency computer would probably be a public record, even if the contents of the email itself were not.

(4) "Prepared, owned, used, or retained" means a public record is a record prepared, owned, used, or retained by an agency. A record can be used by an agency even if the agency does not actually possess the record. If an agency uses a record in its decision-making process, it is a public record. For example, if an agency considered technical specifications of a public works project and returned the specifications to the contractor in another state, the specifications would be a public record because the agency used the document in its decision-making process. The agency could be required to obtain the public record, unless doing so would be impossible. An agency cannot send its only copy of a record to a third party for the sole purpose of avoiding disclosure.

(5) "Identifiable record(s)" means the public record request must be for identifiable records. A request for all or substantially all records prepared, owned, used, or retained by the college is not a valid request for identifiable records, provided that a request for all records regarding a particular topic or containing a particular keyword or name shall not be considered a request for all of the college's records.

(6) "Bot request" means a request for public records that the college reasonably believes was automatically generated by a computer program or script.

(7) The Community College District Number Thirteen is an agency organized by statute pursuant to RCW 28B.50.040. The Community College District Number Thirteen shall hereinafter be referred to as the "college" and includes the institution known as Lower Columbia College. Where appropriate, the term college also refers to the board of trustees, and the officers, agents, and employees of the college.