The Washington Joint Legislative Audit & Review Committee (JLARC) has published its 2022 Public records data dashboards, which includes data from 78% of Washington cities and towns.
In 2017, the Legislature passed RCW 40.14.026, which requires agencies that spend over $100,000 in staff and legal costs associated with maintaining public records and responding to records requests to report on these metrics to JLARC.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|
Number of agencies reporting | 204 | 208 | 232 | 215 | 230 |
Some highlights from the report
In 2022, reporting agencies said that they received 396,442 records requests from individuals, organizations, law firms, and other entities.
- Agencies received an average of 1,724 public records requests in 2022. The range was 0 to 37,280 per agency.
- Cities/towns received the highest number of requests: 161,412 (41% of statewide total).
- The most common requesters were individuals (36%), other entities (18%), governments (11%), and law firms (11%).
- Agencies estimated that providing records would take more than five days for 186,007 records requests (47%).
Agencies estimated spending more than $103 million and 1.2 million hours responding to records requests:
- Cities/towns had the highest estimated cost of fulfilling records requests: $36 million (35% of statewide total).
- Agencies reported $336,444 in total recovered expenses associated with responding to records requests. For example, this may include asking a requester to reimburse the agency for providing physical copies of records.
- State agencies, commissions, or boards had the highest total estimated staff hours spent on records requests: 443,212 hours (36% of statewide total).
Agencies spent $222 million managing and retaining public records.
- State agencies, commissions, or boards had the highest total estimated costs for managing and retaining records: $98 million (44% of statewide total).
Check out the full dashboard on JLARC’s website.
If you have questions or concerns about registering an account or reporting data, please feel free to review the agency guidance document, revisions to the agency guidance document, or the FAQ document. Additional questions may be directed to JLARCPublicRecStudy@leg.wa.gov.