Form revised December 9, 2004

FISCAL NOTE FOR NON-CAPITAL PROJECTS

Department:	Contact Person/Phone:	DOF Analyst/Phone:
Legislative	Michael Jenkins/ 615-1674

Legislation Title: AN ORDINANCE relating to local implementation of the Public Records Act for the State of Washington; providing findings, specific rules and requirements towards making public records available in a timely and orderly manner; and adding new sections to Seattle Municipal Code Chapter 3.104, City Records and Books.

Summary of the Legislation: This Council-generated legislation amends Seattle Municipal Seattle Municipal Code section 3.104 to require City departments to adopt rules illustrating how they comply with Revised Code of Washington (RCW) Section 42.56, the Public Records Act. The legislation also includes an Order exempting the City from developing and maintaining a current index of all records in their possession under RCW 42.56.070. This code establishes the requirement as well as the ability for jurisdictions to exempt themselves from the requirement if it is determined that compliance would be unduly burdensome or would interfere with normal operations. This legislation would fulfill this requirement.

· Background:

This legislation is designed to implement findings from the May 19, 2008 Washington State Auditor’s Office report ‘Open Public Records Practices at 30 Government Entities’ and Attorney General’s model rules of implementation of RCW 42.56.

Please check one of the following:

_X___ This legislation does not have any financial implications.

Without adopting the current index exemption in RCW 42.56.070, there would be a significant financial implication on the City. Compliance with the indexing requirement would require staff resources to prepare such an index, along with maintaining and updating the index while making such an index available to the public.