§ 2.74.065. Costs of providing copies of public records.

A.

Costs for copies. A requestor may obtain copies or scans as provided under RCW 42.56.070(8), 42.56.120 and WAC 44-14-07003; the City may charge for those copies or scans according to the fee schedule below, provided, that if the total charge for copies would be less than $5.00 no fee shall be charged or collected. For records in other forms, the City may charge the actual cost it pays for the medium used to record the record or records provided. Those mediums include, but are not limited to, tapes, USB drives, CDs, DVDs and paper that costs more than $0.15 per page. The statements providing those costs are the invoices paid to obtain them and are available for public inspection and copying.

Document Type/Size	Per Scan Charge	Per Copy Charge
Standard black and white (8.5" x 11'')	$0.14	$0.15
Standard color (8.5" x 11'')	$0.14	$0.17
Black and white (8.5" x 14'')	$0.14	$0.17
Color (8.5" x 14'')	$0.14	$0.21
Black and white (11" x 17'')	$0.14	$0.17
Color (11" x 17")	$0.14	$0.26

 

Before beginning to make copies, the Public Records Officer may require a deposit of up to ten percent of the estimated costs of copying or scanning all the records selected by the requestor. The Public Records Officer may also require the payment of the remainder of the copying/scanning costs before providing all the records, or the payment of the costs of copying/scanning an installment before providing that installment. The Public Records Officer will not charge sales tax when it makes copies or scans of public records but if the records are sent to a third party for copying/scanning, that third party may charge sales tax and the requestor will be responsible for payment of that tax as well as the third party's actual charges for copies or scans.

B.

Costs of mailing. The City may also charge actual costs of mailing, including the cost of the shipping container.

C.

Payment. Payment may be made by cash, check, debit card, credit card, or money order made payable to the City.

D.

Other copying charges. The Act generally governs copying charges for public records, but several specific statutes govern charges for particular kinds of records. The following nonexhaustive list provides some examples: RCW 46.52.085 (charges for traffic accident reports); RCW 10.97.100 (copies of criminal histories); and RCW 70.58.107 (charges for birth certificates). The City will charge the amount authorized pursuant to these other statutes rather than as provided under the Act.

E.

Use of outside vendor. The City is not required to copy/scan records at its own facilities. The City can send the project to a commercial copying/scanning center and bill the requestor for the amount charged by the vendor. The City can arrange with the requestor to pay the vendor directly. The City cannot charge the default per page copying/scanning charge when its cost at a vendor is less.

(Ord. 3509, § 2, 7/1/2014)