Public Records

The City Clerk is the City of Napavine’s Records Officer.  It is the role of this office to assure the City is in compliance with the Public Records Act and the City's Public Disclosure Policy.  The City's Public Records Act ordinance is codified in the Napavine Municipal Code Chapter 2.36.  This includes providing public access to current and historical documents.  The City of Napavine provides access to public records under the provisions of the Washington State Public Records Act (RCW 42.56).

A public record is any state or local record relating to the conduct of government or the performance of a governmental function, and which is prepared or retained by any state or local agency.  The record may be in a variety of forms such as writing, a recording, a picture, an electronic disk, a magnetic tape, etc.

All records maintained by the City of Napavine are available for public inspection unless specifically exempted by law.  You are entitled to access public records, under reasonable conditions, and to copies of those records upon paying the costs of making the copy.  In most cases, you do not have to explain why you want the records.  However, specific information may be necessary to process your request.  We may require information necessary to establish if disclosure would violate certain provisions of law.

The more precisely you can identify the record you seek, the more responsive we can be.  The City of Napavine provides access to existing public records in its possession; however, the City is not required to collect information or organize data to create a record not existing at the time of the request.

How to submit a public records request

Requests may be submitted by email, mail, in-person. 

1. Napavine City Clerk - Rachelle Denham
    407 Birch Ave. SW/P.O. Box 810, Napavine, WA 98565​
     rdenham@cityofnapavine.com

2. Napavine Police Department for police and incident reports - Contact: Judy Godbey
    407 Birch Ave. SW/P.O. Box 179, Napavine, WA 98565

    jgodbey@cityofnapavine.com

Records the City Clerk is not the custodian of:

• Police Records
• Municipal Court Records
• Marriage & Divorce Records
• Lewis County Records
• Washington State Archive

**Fees**

Public Records: An agency may waive any charge assessed for a request pursuant to agency rules and regulations RCW 42.56.120(4)

Note:

• Charges can be combined if more than one type applies. 
• Pursuant to RCW 42.56.120(2)(b), the City of Napavine is not calculating/assessing all actual costs for    copying records because to do so would be unduly burdensome for the following reasons:
  1. The City does not have the resources to conduct a study to determine all actual copying costs for every actual cost type; and

To conduct such a study would interfere with other essential city functions; and (3) even if the City were to conduct such a study, the systems in place facilitate tasks other than public records production.