The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has announced a new effort to revise the Public Records Act (PRA) Model Rules. While not legally binding, the PRA Model Rules are considered important guidance and are looked to by the courts and others as best practices. The rules were last updated in 2018. It is important for cities to provide feedback on this latest proposal.

The AGO recently considered updating the Model Rules at the request of the news media, which requested significant changes in fall 2024. The AGO took informal written comments into January of this year and then paused any further efforts. AWC provided significant written feedback expressing concerns with that proposal.

This recent announcement restarts that process with a similar, but revised, proposal for changes. 

You can visit the AGO’s rulemaking webpage to read more about the process and proposed changes.

The AGO will host a hearing on the proposed changes on November 6 from 3 – 5 pm in Olympia and virtually via Zoom. The deadline for written public comments is November 17. AWC urges cities to weigh in on these proposed changes. AWC has drafted comments and encourages cities to review the memo as you draft your own comments.

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 proposed rules also say agencies should:

• Address the need to make 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.

AWC’s initial reaction is concern that this proposal creates additional requirements and burden for local government without addressing any of the abuses and extraordinary cost drivers related to managing records and responding to records requests. If your city has feedback on these proposed rules, please share it with AWC so we can include it in our comment letter.

The complete proposed rule changes can be found here.

The AGO’s press release highlighting the changes can be found here.