2.52.100 Costs of providing copies of public records.
A. Inspecting Public Records. There is no fee for inspecting public records.
B. Costs for Obtaining Copies of Records.
1. The cost for photocopying, scanning or otherwise producing public records shall be established by fee schedule adopted by city resolution.
2. When providing electronic records, the city’s practice is to make the records available using a link to an online file sharing folder. Upon written request, the city may consider providing electronic records via an alternative form of media (CD, DVD, flash drive), if such alternative is available to the city. In such instances, the city may charge the requestor the actual cost of the media requested.
3. The city may also charge actual costs of mailing, including the cost of the shipping container.
4. As an alternative to any fees imposed in the city’s fee schedule, the city may charge a flat fee of $2.00 if it reasonably estimates that the total fees otherwise incurred would exceed $2.00. For a request processed in installments, this flat fee covers the cost of all installments.
C. Customized Service Charge. In addition to the fees set forth in the city’s fee schedule, the city may charge a customized service charge if the city reasonably estimates that responding to the request will require special information technology expertise to prepare data compilations or provide customized electronic access services; provided, that the information technology expertise will not provide a service that the city would also use for other purposes. This charge cannot exceed the actual cost to the city of the services, and the city must provide a notice to the requestor before imposing that charge that explains the reasons for the charge, the specific services provided, and the estimated amount of the charge. The notice must also give the requestor an opportunity to modify his or her request to avoid the charge.
D. Estimate of Charges. Before incurring any charges associated with a request, a requestor may ask and the city will provide an estimate of total applicable charges before any charges incurred. The city will provide the requestor an opportunity to revise his or her request in order to avoid or reduce applicable charges.
E. Payment. Payment may be made by cash, check, debit, credit, or money order to the city.
F. Other Statutes. Other statutes govern charges for particular kinds of records including, but not limited to, RCW 46.52.085 (charges for traffic accident reports), RCW 10.97.100 (copies of criminal histories), RCW 3.62.060 and 3.62.065 (charges for certain records of municipal courts).
G. Fee Waiver. The city has the discretion to waive charges associated with requests. For administrative convenience, many agencies waive copying charges for small requests.
H. Deposit. Before beginning to make the copies, the public records officer may require a deposit of up to 10 percent of the estimated costs of producing all the records selected by the requestor, including any copying, scanning, transmission and customized service charge. 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. Any unused deposit must be refunded to the requestor. When copying is completed, the city can require the payment of the remainder of the copying charges before providing the records. (Ord. 1465 § 1 (Exh. A), 2021; Ord. 1371 § 1 (Exh. A), 2017; Ord. 1094 § 1, 2007).