14.26.150 Trade secrets and confidential records.
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A. Records Availability.
1. All surveys, reports, plans, diagrams, permits, and other documents, information, and data submitted to the City pursuant to this chapter or information and data obtained by the City through sampling, monitoring, and enforcement activities shall generally be available for public inspection and copying.
2. Such information shall also not be available for public inspection and copying if protected from public disclosure by the provisions of RCW chapter 42.56 as amended or other state and federal laws governing the dissemination of public records and information to the public, including but not limited to patent, trademark, and trade secret laws and regulations.
3. In no case shall an employee or agent of the City be liable to a business, industry or person for the public disclosure of any surveys, reports, plans, diagrams, permits, and other documents, information, and data submitted to the City pursuant to this chapter or information and data obtained by the City through sampling, monitoring, and enforcement activities; unless such information or data has been marked confidential by the business, industry or person and/or the business, industry or person has requested confidentiality consistent with this section.
B. Exemption from Disclosure Request.
1. Any business, industry or person may request that specific and particular information or data in the possession of the City be exempted from public inspection and copying. The request shall be in writing and addressed to the City, and the business, industry or person shall bear the burden of establishing that the specific and particular information or data sought to be exempted is protected from public disclosure under VMC section 14.26.150A2. The City attorney’s office shall determine whether and which portions of such information are protected from public disclosure within 21 days of receipt of a request for confidentiality. The City shall not release for public inspection and copying that information and data for which a business, industry or person has requested confidentiality until such time as the City has made a determination of whether the information is protected from public disclosure, unless the City determines in good faith that the request for confidentiality is frivolous or without merit.
2. The City may withhold records based on VMC section 14.26.150A2 only if it finds:
a. The record contains information that reflects valuable research data that has been obtained by the City within 5 years of the date of the request and that disclosure would produce private gain and public loss. For purposes of this finding, “research data” means a body of facts and information collected for a specific purpose and derived from close, careful study or from scholarly or scientific investigation or inquiring; or
b. The record contains trade secret information because it includes a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique or process that:
i. Derives independent economic value, actual or potential, from not being generally known;
ii. The information is the subject of efforts that are reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy; and
iii. The information is not readily ascertainable from another source.
3. As an alternative to the procedures specified in VMC section 14.26.150B2, the City attorney’s office may decline to make a determination of whether the record is exempt from public disclosure because it contains trade secret information. Where the City attorney’s office declines to make such a determination, the City shall provide the holder of the trade secret a reasonable amount of time, but in no case more than 21 days to obtain an order from the superior court preventing disclosure of the record.
4. A business, industry or person submitting information or data to the City for which the business, industry or person intends to claim whole or partial confidentiality shall mark those specific pages and sections of information or data asserted to be confidential with a conspicuous and legible marking indicating "TRADE SECRET” and/or “CONFIDENTIAL". The business, industry or person shall then submit a request for trade secret protection to the City for the marked records within 7 days of submitting such marked information or data.
C. Availability of Confidential Information. Surveys, reports, plans, diagrams, permits, and other documents, information, and data submitted to the City pursuant to this chapter or information and data obtained by the City through sampling, monitoring, and enforcement activities, which the City or a court of competent jurisdiction has determined are trade secrets and exempted from public inspection and copying, shall be available upon written request to local, state, and federal governmental agencies for uses related to this chapter, the NPDES program, state water quality monitoring and enforcement, and other enforcement proceedings involving the business, industry or person.
D. Procedure for Public Records Request. Any person seeking to inspect or copy any surveys, reports, plans, diagrams, permits, and other documents, information, and data submitted to the City pursuant to this chapter or information and data obtained by the City through sampling, monitoring, and enforcement activities, which are not exempted from public disclosure, shall do so by written request to the City. The request shall be specific enough to permit the City to identify the particular documents, information or data sought. The City shall respond to each document request in accordance with RCW 42.56. (Ord. M-3920 § 4, 2009; Ord. M-3600, 2002)