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Memorandum of Understanding between Kittitas County Courts and Judicial Agencies and the Executive branch of Kittitas County The purpose of this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is to set forth the intent of the parties when the Executive Branch of Kittitas County government (Executive) receives a public records request related to these Courts or Judicial Branch Agencies or their employees. Definitions: For the purposes of this Memorandum of Understanding, the Executive is the Board of County Commissioners (BoCC); the Courts are the Superior Court of Washington for Kittitas County, the Lower Kittitas County District Court, and the Upper Kittitas County District Court, and Judicial Branch Agencies are the entities commonly referred to as "Misdemeanant Probation" and "Juvenile Court Services". The various types of records related to the operations of the Courts and Judicial Branch Agencies are defined in rules promulgated by the Washington Supreme Court. The Executive is an "agency" under the PRA and must respond to requests for public records. "Public record" includes any writing containing information relating to the conduct of government or the performance of any governmental or proprietary function prepared, owned, used, or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics. RCW 42.56.010(3). This MOU recognizes that all Courts and Judicial Branch Agencies fall within the judicial branch, an independent branch of government, and are not included. within the definition of an "agency" under the Public Records Act, chapter 42.56 RCW (PRA). Records of Courts and Judicial Branch Agencies are controlled by provisions of the Washington Constitution, statutory and case law, and General Rules promulgated by the Washington Supreme Court. Some of the records of Courts and Judicial Branch Agencies are maintained exclusively by the specific Court or agency. The processes applicable for viewing or obtaining copies of such records are provided for in General Rule (GR) 31 and GR 31.1. "Court Record" is defined in GR 31(c)(4) and are those records generally related to a judicial proceeding. Access to such records is through a request made to the office of the Clerk of the applicable court. "Administrative Record" is defined in GR 31(c)(2) and GR 31.1(b)(2) and GR 31.1(i)(2). Access to such records is through a request made to the appropriate Public Records Officer as described in number 1, below. Other records of the Courts and Judicial Branch Agencies reside on resources provided by the Executive, such as IT servers. The Executive is an incidental custodian of these records and does not use them for any executive branch purpose. They are not records of the Executive and thus not available by request to the Executive.