(1) The commission does not charge a fee for the inspection of public records made available in the commission office or on the commission website.

(2) The commission does not charge a fee for locating public records and making them available to you for copying.

(3)(a) The commission may charge fees for production of copies of public records consistent with the fee schedule established in RCW 42.56.120.

(b) Pursuant to RCW 42.56.120(2), the commission declares for the following reasons that it would be unduly burdensome for it to calculate the actual costs it charges for providing copies of public records: Funds were not allocated by the legislature for performing a study to calculate such actual costs and the agency lacks the necessary funds to perform a study and to calculate costs; and a study would interfere with and disrupt other essential agency functions.

(4) Before beginning to make copies, the public records officer may require you to deposit up to ten percent of the estimated costs of copying and transmitting the records responsive to your request. The public records officer may also require you to pay the remainder of the copying costs before providing you all the records, or require you to pay the costs of providing an installment of records before providing you that installment. If you do not retrieve or pay for an installment of records within the time frame set by the public records officer, the balance of the request will not be fulfilled and your request will be closed.