Washington Administrative Code
Title 132R - Big Bend Community College
Chapter 132R-175 - Public records
Section 132R-175-085 - Processing of public records requests
Current through Register Vol. 24-06, March 15, 2024
(1) The public records officer will process requests in the order that allows the most requests to be processed in the most efficient manner. District employees who receive a request for public records shall immediately forward the request to the public records officer.
(2) Within five business days of receipt of the request, the public records officer will do one or more of the following:
(3) If the district 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.
(4) When a request for records in an electronic format is received, the public records officer will provide the nonexempt records or portion of such records that are reasonably locatable in an electronic format that is used by the agency and is generally commercially available or in a format that is reasonably translatable from the format in which the agency keeps the record.
(5) In the event that the requested records contain information that may affect the 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.
(6) Some records are exempt from disclosure, in whole or in part. If the district 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, the public records officers will redact the exempt portions, provide the nonexempt portions, and indicate to the requestor why portions of the record are being redacted.
(7) Inspection of records.
(8) When the request is for a large number of records the public records officer or designee 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 or designee may stop searching for the remaining records and close the request.
(9) When the inspection of the requested records is complete and all requested copies are provided, the public records officer or designee will indicate that the district has completed a diligent search for the requested records and made any located nonexempt records available for inspection.
(10) 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 district has closed the request.
(11) If, after the district has informed the requestor that it has provided all available records, the district 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.