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SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6070
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AS AMENDED BY THE HOUSE
Passed Legislature - 1994 Regular Session
State of Washington 53rd Legislature 1994
Regular Session
By
Read first time 01/27/94.
Managing certain public records.
AN ACT Relating to
public records preservation, maintenance, and disposition by agencies of local
government and the secretary of state; adding a new section to chapter 40.14
RCW; creating a new section; and providing an effective date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF
WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec.
1. The legislature finds
that: (1) Accountability for and the efficient management of local government
records are in the public interest and that compliance with public records
management requirements significantly affects the cost of local government
administration; (2) the secretary of state is responsible for insuring the
preservation of local government archives and may assist local government
compliance with public records statutes; (3) as provided in RCW 40.14.025, all
archives and records management services provided by the secretary of state are
funded exclusively by a schedule of fees and charges established jointly by the
secretary of state and the director of financial management; (4) the secretary
of state's costs for preserving and providing public access to local government
archives and providing records management assistance to local government
agencies have been funded by fees paid by state government agencies; (5) local
government agencies are responsible for costs associated with managing,
protecting, and providing public access to the records in their custody; (6)
local government should help fund the secretary of state's local government
archives and records management services; (7) the five-dollar fee collected by
county clerks for processing warrants for unpaid taxes or liabilities filed by
the state of Washington is not sufficient to cover processing costs and is far
below filing fees commonly charged for similar types of minor civil actions;
(8) a surcharge of twenty dollars would bring the filing fee for warrants for
the collection of unpaid taxes and liabilities up to a level comparable to
other minor civil filings and should be applied to the support of the secretary
of state's local government archives and records services without placing an
undue burden on local government; and (9) the process of collecting and
transmitting surcharge revenue should not have an undue impact on the
operations of the state agencies that file warrants for the collection of
unpaid taxes and liabilities or the clerks of superior court who process them.
NEW SECTION. Sec.
2. A new section is added
to chapter 40.14 RCW to read as follows:
State agencies shall
collect a surcharge of twenty dollars from the judgment debtor upon the
satisfaction of a warrant filed in superior court for unpaid taxes or
liabilities. The surcharge is imposed on the judgment debtor in the form of a
penalty in addition to the filing fee provided in RCW 36.18.020(4). The
surcharge revenue shall be transmitted to the state treasurer for deposit in
the archives and records management account, or procedures for the collection
and transmittal of surcharge revenue to the archives and records management
account shall be established cooperatively between the filing agencies and
clerks of superior court.
Surcharge revenue
deposited in the archives and records management account shall be expended by
the secretary of state exclusively for the payment of costs and expenses
incurred in the provision of public archives and records management services to
local government agencies by the division of archives and records management.
The secretary of state shall work with local government representatives to
establish a committee to advise the state archivist on the local government
archives and records management program. Surcharge revenue shall be allocated
exclusively to:
(1) Appraise, process,
store, preserve, and provide public research access to original records
designated by the state archivist as archival which are no longer required to
be kept by the agencies which originally made or filed them;
(2) Protect essential
records, as provided by chapters 40.10 and 40.20 RCW. Permanent facsimiles of
essential records shall be produced and placed in security storage with the
state archivist;
(3) Coordinate records
retention and disposition management and provide support for the following
functions under RCW 40.14.070:
(a) Advise and assist
individual agencies on public records management requirements and practices;
and
(b) Compile, maintain,
and regularly update general records retention schedules and destruction
authorizations; and
(4) Develop and
maintain standards for the application of recording media and records storage
technologies.
NEW
SECTION. Sec. 3. This act shall take
effect July 1, 1994.
