The Port Orchard City Council unanimously passed an ordinance amending public record requests on Nov. 12.

Added to the current ordinance was if records are immediately available, there is no requirement to fill out the public records request form. The records can be immediately inspected and/or copied.

It also changed the number of free copies from 10 to 15, along with two compact discs per request at no charge.

Staff also removed language that the city will not accept records request by email, which is inconsistent with state law, said City Clerk Brandy Rinearson.

Rinearson said the ordinance includes language that references the option to provide an Internet link if the requests are made on the city’s website.

“There is no requirement to fill out a form,” Rinearson said. “Any format we receive for a request, we are required to fulfill it whether we have spam filters in place or not.”

The option was added to state law in 2010, Rinearson said.

According to the ordinance, in case of an alternate dispute resolution regarding the inspection or copying of public records, the parties shall first meet in a “good-faith” attempt to resolve the matter by agreement or by mediation. The mediator would be selected from an approved list by the city and available upon request.

The party has 15 days to provide a written notice to the city to seek mediation.

Council also unanimously approved a resolution adopting policies and procedures for processing public records requests.

According to a staff report, before 2012 the city clerk’s office spent four hours a week processing public records requests. But in the past three years there has been an increase in requests which has caused the clerk’s office to spend about 22 hours each week to process them.

The resolution defines routine and non-routine requests, reasonable amount of time to spend on processing requests, responsibility of city employees, process for responding to requests and providing a list of common public records that are exempt.

Councilman Fred Chang said while attending a recent public records workshop, he learned there is no insurance available that would cover a city’s penalties for not meeting a public records request.