Title 40 — Title 40 PUBLIC DOCUMENTS, RECORDS, AND PUBLICATIONS

The statute law committee, after each legislative session, shall distribute, sell, or exchange session laws as required under this section.(1) The statute law committee, in its discretion, may provide for provision of free copies in digital or print format of the session laws to …

The house and senate journals shall be distributed and sold by the chief clerk of the house of representatives and the secretary of the senate as follows:(1) Subject to subsection (5) of this section, sets shall be distributed as follows: One to each requesting official whose off…

The supreme court reports and the court of appeals reports shall be distributed by the reporter of decisions as follows:(1) Each supreme court justice and court of appeals judge is entitled to receive one copy of each volume containing an opinion signed by him or her.(2) The stat…

On the publication of each volume of reports the publisher to whom the contract is awarded shall provide to the reporter the number of copies of each volume of supreme court and court of appeals reports necessary for the reporter and the state law library to comply with RCW 40.04…

As used in this chapter:(1) "Electronic repository" means a collection of publicly accessible electronic publications stored in a secure digital environment with redundant backup to preserve the collection.(2) "Format" includes any media used in the publication of state informati…

There is hereby created as a division of the state library, and under the direction of the state librarian, a state publications distribution center. The center shall utilize the depository library system to permit citizens economical and convenient access to state publications, …

(1) Every state agency shall promptly submit to the state library copies of published information that are state publications.(a) For state publications available only in print format, each state agency shall deposit, at a minimum, two copies of each of its publications with the …

(1) To provide economical public access to state publications, the center may enter into depository contracts with any free public library, The Evergreen State College, regional university, or state university library, or, if needed, the library of any privately incorporated coll…

The center shall publish and distribute regularly a list of available state publications, and may publish and distribute such other descriptive matter as will facilitate the distribution of and access to state publications.[ 2006 c 199 s 7; 1963 c 233 s 5.]Notes:Findings—2006 c 1…

Upon request by the center, issuing state agencies shall furnish the center with a complete list of its current state publications and a copy of its mailing and/or exchange lists.[ 1963 c 233 s 6.]

This chapter shall not apply to nor affect the duties concerning publications distributed by, or officers of:(1) The state law library; and(2) The statute law committee and the code reviser.[ 1983 c 3 s 83; 1963 c 233 s 7.]

The effective date of this chapter shall be July 1, 1963.[ 1963 c 233 s 8.]

It is the intent of this legislation [act] to improve executive management and control of state publications and reduce state expenditures through: (1) Elimination of reports and publications which are economically or otherwise unjustified; and (2) the simplification and consolid…

The terms defined in this section shall have the meanings indicated when used in this chapter.(1) "Director" means the director of financial management.(2) "State agency" includes every state office, department, division, bureau, board, commission, committee, higher education ins…

(1) Any annual, biennial, or special report required to be made by any state officer, board, agency, department, commissioner, regents, trustees, or institution to the governor or to the legislature may be typewritten and a copy shall be filed with the governor, or the governor's…

(1) The governor or the governor's designee shall take such other action as may be necessary to maximize the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of state publications and to do so may eliminate, consolidate, or simplify state agency publications.(2) Nothing in this chapter sha…

Each state agency shall at least once each biennium notify the addressees of each state publication in or with that publication that they may be removed from the mailing list by notifying the originating agency. Mailings required by a state or federal statute, rule, or regulation…

A state agency may not accept advertising for placement in a state publication unless the advertiser: (1) Has obtained a certificate of registration from the department of revenue under chapter 82.32 RCW; and (2) if the advertiser is not otherwise obligated to collect and remit W…

In order to provide for the continuity and preservation of civil government, each elected and appointed officer of the state shall designate those public documents which are essential records of his or her office and needed in an emergency and for the reestablishment of normal op…

The state archivist is authorized to reproduce those documents designated as essential records by the several elected and appointed officials of the state and local government by microfilm or other miniature photographic process and to assist and cooperate in the storage and safe…

As used in this chapter, the term "public records" shall include any paper, correspondence, completed form, bound record book, photograph, film, sound recording, map drawing, machine-readable material, compact disc meeting current industry ISO specifications, or other document, r…

All public records shall be and remain the property of the state of Washington. They shall be delivered by outgoing officials and employees to their successors and shall be preserved, stored, transferred, destroyed or disposed of, and otherwise managed, only in accordance with th…

The imaging account is created in the custody of the state treasurer. All receipts collected under RCW 40.14.020(8) for contract imaging, micrographics, reproduction, and duplication services provided by the division of archives and records management must be deposited into the a…

The local government archives account is created in the state treasury. All receipts collected by the county auditors under RCW 40.14.027 and 36.22.175 for local government services, such as providing records schedule compliance, security microfilm inspection and storage, archiva…

(1) The secretary of state and the director of financial management shall jointly establish a procedure and formula for allocating the costs of services provided by the division of archives and records management to state agencies. The total amount allotted for services to state …

(1) The division of archives and records management in the office of the secretary of state must establish and administer a competitive grant program for local agencies to improve technology information systems for public record retention, management, and disclosure, and any rela…

State agencies shall collect a surcharge of twenty dollars from the judgment debtor upon the satisfaction of a warrant filed in superior court for unpaid taxes or liabilities. The surcharge is imposed on the judgment debtor in the form of a penalty in addition to the filing fee p…

*** CHANGE IN 2026 *** (SEE 5863.SL) ***(1) All public records, not required in the current operation of the office where they are made or kept, and all records of every agency, commission, committee, or any other activity of state government which may be abolished or discontinue…

Each department or other agency of the state government shall designate a records officer to supervise its records program and to represent the office in all contacts with the records committee, hereinafter created, and the division of archives and records management. The records…

There is created a committee, to be known as the records committee, composed of the archivist, an appointee of the state auditor, an appointee of the attorney general, and an appointee of the director of financial management. Committee members shall serve without additional salar…

(1) Any destruction of official public records shall be pursuant to a schedule approved under RCW 40.14.050. Official public records shall not be destroyed unless:(a) Except as provided under RCW 40.14.070(2)(b), the records are six or more years old;(b) The department of origin …

(1)(a) Other than those records detailed in subsection (4) of this section, county, municipal, and other local government agencies may request authority to destroy noncurrent public records having no further administrative or legal value by submitting to the division of archives …

The provisions of this chapter shall not be construed as repealing or modifying any other acts or parts of acts authorizing the destruction of public records save for those specifically named in *section 9 of this act; nor shall this chapter affect the provisions of chapter 40.07…

As used in RCW 40.14.010 and 40.14.100 through 40.14.180, unless the context requires otherwise, "legislative records" shall be defined as correspondence, amendments, reports, and minutes of meetings made by or submitted to legislative committees or subcommittees and transcripts …

Nothing in RCW 40.14.010 and 40.14.100 through 40.14.180 shall prohibit a legislator or legislative employee from contributing his or her personal papers to any private library, public library, or the state archives. The state archivist is authorized to receive papers of legislat…

As used in RCW 40.14.010 and 40.14.100 through 40.14.180 "clerk" means clerk of the Washington state house of representatives and "secretary" means the secretary of the Washington state senate.[ 1971 ex.s. c 102 s 4.]

The legislative committee chair, subcommittee chair, committee member, or employed personnel of the state legislature having possession of legislative records that are not required for the regular performance of official duties shall, within ten days after the adjournment sine di…

It shall be the duty of the clerk and the secretary to advise the party caucuses in each house concerning the necessity to keep public records. The state archivist or his or her representative shall work with the clerk and secretary to provide information and instructions on the …

Committee records may be used by legislative employees for research at the discretion of the clerk or the secretary.[ 1971 ex.s. c 102 s 7.]

The clerk or the secretary shall, with advice of the state archivist, prescribe rules for access to records more than three years old when such records have been delivered to the state archives for preservation and maintenance.[ 1971 ex.s. c 102 s 8.]

Any sound recording of debate in the house or senate made by legislative employees shall be preserved by the chief clerk of the house and by the secretary of the senate, respectively, for two years from the end of the session at which made, and thereafter shall be transmitted to …

The provisions of RCW 40.14.010 and 40.14.100 through 40.14.180 shall not be construed as repealing or modifying any other acts or parts of acts authorizing the retention or destruction of public records nor shall RCW 40.14.010 and 40.14.100 through 40.14.180 affect the provision…

Every person who shall willfully and unlawfully remove, alter, mutilate, destroy, conceal, or obliterate a record, map, book, paper, document, or other thing filed or deposited in a public office, or with any public officer, by authority of law, is guilty of a class C felony and …

Every officer who shall mutilate, destroy, conceal, erase, obliterate, or falsify any record or paper appertaining to the officer's office, or who shall fraudulently appropriate to the officer's own use or to the use of another person, or secrete with intent to appropriate to suc…

Every person who shall knowingly procure or offer any false or forged instrument to be filed, registered, or recorded in any public office, which instrument, if genuine, might be filed, registered or recorded in such office under any law of this state or of the United States, is …

For the purpose of this chapter, the term "business" shall mean and include business, industry, profession, occupation and calling of every kind.[ 1949 c 223 s 3; Rem. Supp. 1949 s 1257-6.]

The head of any business or the head of any state, county or municipal department, commission, bureau or board may cause any or all records required or authorized by law to be made or kept by such official, department, commission, bureau, board, or business to be photographed, mi…

Such photostatic copy, photograph, microphotograph or photographic film record, or copy of the original records shall be deemed to be an original record for all purposes, and shall be admissible in evidence in all courts or administrative agencies. A facsimile, exemplification or…

The legislature finds that persons attempting to escape from actual or threatened domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking, or stalking frequently establish new addresses in order to prevent their assailants or probable assailants from finding them. The purpose of this chap…

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.(1) "Address" means a residential street address, school address, or work address of an individual, as specified on the individual's application to be a program participan…