(1) Website records: Persons seeking public records of the county road administration board under the act are strongly encouraged to, before submitting a records request, first review the board's website at www.crab.wa.gov.

(2) Public Records Act requests: Public Records Act requests to the board must be submitted only to the public records officer in the Olympia office, in one of the following ways:

Online form: www.crab.wa.gov/

Email: publicrecords@crab.wa.gov

U.S. Mail, delivery, in-person:

County Road Administration Board

2404 Chandler Ct. S.W., Suite 240

Olympia, WA 98502

Requestors are strongly encouraged to submit requests in writing. Requestors are encouraged to use the online Public Records Act request form, which, once completed, is automatically submitted to the board's public records officer. The board accepts in-person requests at the Olympia office during normal office hours, 9:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding holidays and days the agency is closed. If the agency receives an oral request, the agency will reduce the request in writing and verify in writing with the requestor that it correctly memorialized the request.

Communications seeking agency records, but which are sent or provided to unauthorized staff will not be accepted as or processed as Public Records Act requests. The agency will process such communications as general informal inquiries, general correspondence, general requests for information, or discovery, as appropriate. The requestor may resubmit their request to the public records officer.

This Public Records Act request procedure provides the fullest assistance to requestors by:

(a) Establishing a uniform point of contact for all Public Records Act requests to the agency and related inquiries, consistent with the public records officer contact information published in the Washington State Register, and pursuant to RCW 42.56.580; and

(b) Enabling the agency to promptly distinguish Public Records Act requests as high volume of other daily communications to the agency on multiple topics, so as to enable appropriate responses and thereby avoid excessive interference with other essential agency functions as provided in RCW 42.56.100; and

(c) Ensuring that records requests submitted under the act are centrally reviewed during business hours by the public records officer or designee, so the agency may more efficiently assign a tracking number to the request, log it in, review it, provide an initial or other response within five business days after receipt as provided in RCW 42.56.520, and otherwise timely process the request pursuant to the act and these rules.

(3) The public records officer will oversee compliance with the act, but a designee may process the request. The public records officer or designee and the agency will provide the fullest assistance to requestors; ensure that public records are protected from damage or disorganization; and prevent fulfilling public records requests from causing excessive interference with essential functions of the agency. More information about submitting public records requests to the agency is in this chapter and on the board's website.