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Kittitas County District Court, Lower Agenda Staff Report AGENDA DATE: 2/16/2016 ACTION REQUESTED: Request to Approve the Memorandum of Understanding between Kittitas County Courts and Judicial Agencies and the Executive branch of Kittitas County. BACKGROUND: On January 1, 2016, the Supreme Court enacted a court rule, General Rule 31.1, which governs public access to court's administrative records. Administrative records are defined as any court record that doesn't include 'Chamber Records' or 'Case Records'. Administrative records include employee payroll, time card records, employee email, and employee personnel files, amongst many other items too long to list. Some of these Court Administrative Records happen to be held by other departments, such as the Auditor's Office, Human Resources, and Information Technology. Courts have never been governed by the Public Records Act and prior to January 1, 2016, the courts never had any official guidelines that governed the public release of its administrative records. In the courts' effort to be transparent, the courts allowed its administrative records to be released by other county departments under the specifications of the Public Records Act. Because General Rule 31.1 is its own rule, which all courts are required to follow and because the new court rule is less restrictive than the PRA in releasing administrative records to the public, the courts of Kittitas County request that the new rule be explained to the members of the Executive branch of Kittitas County via this Memorandum of Understanding. INTERACTION: The Prosecutor's Office has reviewed and drafted the proposed Memorandum of Understanding. RECOMMENDATION: Approve the Memorandum of Understanding between Kittitas County Courts and Judicial Agencies and the Executive branch of Kittitas County. HANDLING: Please forward to IT and HR for their signatures after BOCC signs. Original - Clerk of the Board. Copy-LDC LEAD STAFF: Christine Luvera