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Clerk's office reports rising public-records requests; city weighing cost breakdowns and policy changes
Summary
City Clerk Nathan McDonald and Deputy Clerk Mary Preston told the Lynnwood council public-records requests have risen and reviewed RCW 42.56 obligations, NextRequest portal changes, and JLARC metrics; staff offered to provide detailed JLARC and cost breakdowns to council.
City Clerk Nathan McDonald and Deputy City Clerk Mary Preston presented an overview of Lynnwood's public-records program, focusing on legal duties under the Public Records Act (RCW 42.56), retention rules, and operational processes. Preston summarized the five-business-day response requirement, the need to provide installment schedules or exemption logs when redactions or denials occur, and the distinction between requests received through the portal, email or in person.
Preston walked through examples of simple, moderate and complex requests, and noted the city's recent switch from GovQA to NextRequest for its public- records portal. She said the change reduced costs but has made email search workflows slower because NextRequest lacks some of GovQA's email-search tools. On volume, Preston provided multi-year counts (as presented): 2018: 435; 2019: 522; 2020: 408; 2021: 442; 2022: 502; 2023: 656; 2024: 591; last year (presumably 2025): 785; and so far in 2026: 421 requests received and 419 closed. "We are seeing a rising trend in the number of public records received," she said.
Council members asked about the cost of fulfilling requests and whether the city could recover staff time. Preston said JLARC reporting contains cost and penalty data and that the city cannot charge for staff time under current law; fees are limited to copying and certain email-search thresholds. She offered to send the most recent JLARC report and a breakdown by requester type (individuals, media, businesses) to the council. "If you are interested, I can email our most recent JLARC report," Preston said.
