Wash. Admin. Code § 132S-10-040 - 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:
(a) Do not serve in an
administrative capacity;
(b) Have
not been appointed by the college to a college board, commission, or
internship; and
(c) Do not have a
supervisory role or delegated college authority.
(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 pictures,
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.
Notes
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No prior version found.