AG Brown proposes Model Public Records Act Rules to improve government transparency

In a move to make all levels of government more transparent, Attorney General Nick Brown has proposed changes to the model rules that guide governments' responses to Public Records Act requests.

"Concerns about transparency and integrity in government are at an all-time high, and officials have an obligation to uphold the spirit of the Public Records Act," Attorney General Nick Brown said. "We welcome the public's input into these model rules aimed at helping agencies across the state increase transparency and responsiveness to requests."

The process of developing new model rules kicked off with a rulemaking petition last year from news organizations saying they faced "extreme backlogs" in agencies fulfilling public records requests. The Attorney General's Office then worked with state media leaders, open government advocates, and local jurisdictions to develop draft model rules emphasizing timely and diligent responses to records requests. The proposed rules encourage agencies to:

• Triage requests into simple and complex tracks to ensure that processing times are proportionate to the difficulty of each request.
• Provide records with their initial five-day response where the request is for a single, specific, identifiable record.
• Make sure the agency has a reasonable belief that the records are arguably exempt from disclosure before issuing a third-party notice.

The model rules also say agencies should:

• Address the need for making public records accessible for search and production.
• Send requesters a closure letter, consistent with a recent court case, to let them know when an agency is no longer working on a response and the one-year timeframe for judicial review has begun.

The AGO has initiated a formal rulemaking process with the proposal and will hold a public hearing on the proposed changes on Nov. 6, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the John A. Cherberg Building, Rooms ABC, 304 15^th Avenue SW, in Olympia.

The AGO provides model rules that public agencies at any level of government across the state can adopt, in whole or in part, as part of their work to meet their legal obligations under the Public Records Act.

In August 2024, The Seattle Times and other media organizations submitted a rulemaking petition requesting that the model rules be revised to address delays journalists encountered in requesting public records. The AGO began an informal rulemaking process, publicized on the agency's website and via email, to welcome input from the public and the news media to inform development of the proposed revised rules now open for public comment.

Washington's Public Records Act, which originally passed as a ballot initiative in 1972, is designed to prioritize transparency in government. It states that "the people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know."

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