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Council hears staff plan to charge statutory default fees for public records, recommends resolution draft
Summary
Staff recommended Liberty Lake adopt the statutory default fee schedule for public records and set a body-worn camera rate of 76¢ per minute; council members generally signaled support and asked staff to draft a resolution for a future vote.
City staff recommended that Liberty Lake adopt the state statutory default fee schedule for public records and use the City of Spokane’s 2023 cost study rate of 76 cents per minute for body-worn-camera footage, and the City Council asked staff to draft a resolution reflecting that policy.
At the Aug. 19 meeting, City staffer Kyle reviewed three approaches allowed under Washington law: (1) tracking actual costs for each request; (2) using statutory default charges (the pragmatic recommendation); and (3) a flat-fee model. Kyle told the council a statutory default approach would be simpler to administer and recommended adopting the 76¢/minute benchmark used by Spokane-area agencies.
“Based on the information that we went and collected, the staff recommendation is to implement a statutory default for physical and electronic records, [and] adopt the City of Spokane 2023 cost study of 76¢ a minute,” Kyle said. He also proposed policy language that would allow fee waivers for parties explicitly exempted by statute, such as victims and certain government agencies.
Deputy public-safety staff and legal counsel explained that exemptions in the statute allow waivers for people directly involved in incidents or for their legal representatives. Police staff said the largest workload comes from body-worn-camera requests and broad “open” requests asking for officer-complaint records or use-of-force footage.
Council reaction: Several council members, including Kurtz, said they favored the staff approach as a reasonable start and asked for a review of actual costs during the 2026 budget process. Council member Kurtz said: “I’m inclined to go with the staff’s recommendations and see how it goes.” Council also discussed installment notifications, prepayment thresholds for large requests and operational steps to combine attachments so requesters are not charged for dozens of separate files.
What’s next: Staff will draft a resolution and fee-schedule language for council consideration. The resolution will include waiver authority following RCW 42.56.120 and will be incorporated into the city’s annual fee schedule if adopted.
Ending: Council members asked staff to return with implementation details and actual cost data from 2025 so the council can reassess the fee policy during the 2026 budget review.
