(1) Within five business days of receipt of the request, the public records officer will acknowledge receipt and do one or more of the following:

(a) Make the records available for inspection or copying;

(b) Send copies of the records to the requestor, if copies are requested and the requestor has paid any fees that are due;

(c) Provide a reasonable estimate of when the records will be available;

(d) Request clarification from the requestor, if the request is unclear or does not sufficiently identify the requested records; or

(e) Deny the request.

(2) Before providing public records, the public records officer may notify others potentially affected by the disclosure of those records, so that they can seek a court order to prevent or limit the disclosure under RCW 42.56.540. The notice to the affected persons will include a copy of the public records request.

(3) Some records are exempt from disclosure, in whole or in part, and may be withheld or redacted.

(4) The office is not required to create a record that does not otherwise exist.

(5) The public records officer will close a request and inform the requestor that the office has closed the request if the requestor:

(a) Withdraws the request;

(b) Fails to inspect the records;

(c) Fails to pay a fee for records within thirty days after the office sends notification of the fee to the requestor; or

(d) Fails to claim copies of records within thirty days after the office sends notification that the copies are available.