AN ACT Relating to public records; amending RCW 40.14.020; adding a new section to chapter 40.14 RCW; and making an appropriation.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. Section 2, chapter 246, Laws of 1957 as last amended by section 1, chapter 84, Laws of 1983 and RCW 40.14.020 are each amended to read as follows:

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 the provisions of this chapter. In order to insure the proper management and safeguarding of public records, the division of archives and records management is established in the office of the secretary of state, and, under the administration of the state archivist, who shall have reasonable access to all public records, wherever kept, for purposes of information, surveying, or cataloguing, shall undertake the following functions, duties, and responsibilities:

(1) To manage the archives of the state of Washington;

(2) To centralize the archives of the state of Washington, to make them available for reference and scholarship, and to insure their proper preservation;

(3) To inspect, inventory, catalog, and arrange retention and transfer schedules on all record files of all state departments and other agencies of state government;

(4) To insure the maintenance and security of all state public records and to establish safeguards against unauthorized removal or destruction;

(5) To establish and operate such state record centers as may from time to time be authorized by appropriation, for the purpose of preserving, servicing, screening and protecting all state public records which must be preserved temporarily or permanently, but which need not be retained in office space and equipment;

(6) To set standards by rule for the durability and permanence of records required by law or for other reasons to be filed and maintained permanently or for very long periods of time by state and local agencies;

(7) To gather and disseminate to interested agencies information on all phases of records management and current practices, methods, procedures, techniques, and devices for efficient and economical management and preservation of records;

(8) To operate a central microfilming bureau which will microfilm, at cost, records approved for filming by the head of the office of origin and the archivist; to approve microfilming projects undertaken by state departments and all other agencies of state government; and to maintain proper standards for this work;

(9) To maintain necessary facilities for the review of records approved for destruction and for their economical disposition by sale or burning; directly to supervise such destruction of public records as shall be authorized by the terms of this chapter;

(10) To conduct an oral history program to record and document the oral history of former members and staff of the Washington state legislature, former state government officials and personnel, and other citizens of interest through recording memoirs, processing and making transcripts of the tapes, and taking photographs. The tapes, transcripts, and photographs shall be indexed, shall be available for reference, and shall be properly preserved;

(11) To adopt rules under chapter 34.04 RCW to carry out the state archivist's duties under this chapter.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 40.14 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The oral history advisory committee is created.

(2) The committee shall be composed of the following members: The secretary of state, the state archivist, the secretary of the senate or the secretary's designee, the chief clerk of the house of representatives or the chief clerk's designee, two members of the senate with one from each major political party appointed by the president of the senate, two members of the house of representatives with one from each major political party appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives, and two private citizens appointed by majority vote of the other members of the committee. The appointed members shall be appointed for two-year terms, but the legislative members shall resign if they are no longer members of the legislature. Vacancies shall be filled in the same manner as the appointments were made.

(3) Members of the committee shall serve without compensation. The nonlegislative members of the committee shall be reimbursed for travel expenses under RCW 43.03.050 and 43.03.060. The legislators who are members of the committee shall be reimbursed for travel expenses under RCW 44.04.120.

(4) The secretary of state is the chair of the committee.

(5) The committee shall meet at the call of the chair. A majority of the members constitute a quorum for the conduct of business.

(6) The committee shall provide advice to the state archivist on the operation of the oral history program under RCW 40.14.020.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. The sum of one hundred twenty-five thousand sixty-six dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated from the general fund for the 1985-1987 biennium to the state archivist to carry out the oral history program.