Skip to main content
Loading…
This section is included in your selections.

Except as hereinafter provided, it is unlawful for the city council or any member, deputy, clerk, agent, employee or representative thereof, or for any city official or any other person, to make known or reveal any facts or information contained in any return filed by any license payer pursuant to the provisions of this chapter or disclosed in any investigation or examination of the license payer’s books or records made in connection with the administration of this chapter. The foregoing, however, shall not be construed to prohibit the city council, or a member or employee thereof, from:

a. Giving such facts or information in evidence in any court action involving license fees imposed under this chapter or involving a violation of the provisions of this chapter, or involving any department of the State of Washington if such facts and information are relevant to the issues in such cases;

b. Giving such facts and information to the license payer or his duly authorized agent;

c. Publishing statistics so classified as to prevent the identification of particular returns or reports or items thereof;

d. Permitting the records to be audited by proper state or city officers, agents and employees;

e. Giving any such facts or information to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue of the United States or the proper officers of any tax department of the State of Washington for official purposes.

Any person acquiring knowledge of such facts and information in the course of his employment or duties with the city council, and any person acquiring knowledge of such facts and information as provided under subsections (d) and (e) of this section, who shall reveal or make known any such facts or information to another not entitled to knowledge of such facts or information under the provisions of this section, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding three hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the city jail not exceeding ninety days, or both such fine and imprisonment. If the offender or person guilty of such violation by an employee of the city, he shall, in addition to the penalty above mentioned set forth in this paragraph, forfeit such employment and shall not be eligible to employment by the city in any capacity for a period of two years thereafter. (Ord. M-203 §16, 1954)