County Spotlight: Complying with the Public Records Act

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, February 25, 2026

By Mark Ozias

Following the signing of the Freedom of Information Act by President Lyndon Johnson on July 4, 1966 a broader national movement toward open government emerged. Washington State voters followed suit in 1972 when our own Public Records Act was enacted, and these laws underscore the principle that government records belong to the people and that access to information is fundamental to a well-functioning democracy.

To ensure transparency and accountability in local government, public records must be disclosed upon request. Exemptions are to be narrowly construed and disclosure requirements are to be interpreted liberally to promote openness. Citizens, journalists, businesses, organizations and others are thus empowered to monitor the actions, spending and decision-making processes of local government.

Most everything counts as a public record, such as emails, physical paper documents, photos, sound and video recordings, databases, website content, social media posts, texts, budget documents, personnel records, meeting minutes, contracts and generally any record made or received by the county in connection with public business. Format of the record does not matter, and records on a personal device can be public if used for public business.

Local governments are held to a high and strict standard regarding compliance with the Public Records Act. We are required to designate a Public Records Officer, adopt and publish Public Record policies, and provide and maintain mandatory training. We have five business days in which to respond to a request by either providing the record, seeking clarification, providing a reasonable time estimate for fulfilling the request or denying it if it meets a statutory exemption.

We must retain records according to a schedule approved by the Washington State Archives, and cannot destroy records that are subject to an active request even if they have passed their retention date. If we are found to be non-compliant with the Public Records Act and are taken to court, a fine of up to $100 per day for each day of non-compliance may be issued.

It is vital to stay on top of records management, as we are required to furnish any record we have — even if it is a record that is sitting in an old box somewhere, years after the retention date has passed. This is exactly what happened to Clallam County about 10 years ago; someone tripped over a box in the basement and soon realized that it contained records that would have been responsive to a request and that had not been properly disclosed, exposing the county to potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in liability. Fortunately in this instance, we were able to come to a unique agreement with the litigant that resulted in the expenditure of dollars for a new county park rather than a cash settlement.

Clallam County has built and improved upon our records management effort every year since, and it is extensive. We have two employees who manage public records requests for all of Clallam County besides the Sheriff’s Office, as well as several employees in the Sheriff’s Office who focus on fulfilling records requests. Every department has a Public Records specialist who works with each individual employee and elected official in that department when a request comes through.

In 2025 these amazing public servants spent more than 2,500 hours responding to more than 2,300 requests. The implementation of body-cams is considered a public records success; however it has created countless hours of video footage that, when potentially responsive to a request, needs to be reviewed and redacted if necessary. As the use and availability of video cameras expands and as other technologies and forms of communication evolve, so must the skill set and knowledge base of public records officers.

We are proud of the public, and civic, service that our Public Records team provides. They are customer-service oriented and work hard to fulfill many requests within only a day or two. They maintain a helpful set of pages at clallamcountywa.gov should you wish to learn more or to file a request.