YAKIMA — Last year Yakima County responded to 2,453 requests for public documents. Many of those had multiple parts, each requiring research of thousands of documents.
For example, one recent request in the county’s planning department contained 10 boxes of documents.
Answering requests isn’t always simple. Documents must be reviewed to redact confidential information, a process that could take weeks or months depending on the size and scope of the request, said the county’s public records officer, Stormy Miller.
“People think they’re just going to put in their record requests and get their documents — and it’s not that easy,” she said.
Meanwhile, as government agencies grapple with a growing number of requests, advancements in technology further complicate responses.
Now cities and counties statewide are unifying behind a push to change the Public Records Act that would charge fees for electronic documents and require disputes over public disclosure requests be solved through dispute resolution rather than in court. It’s unclear how much the fee would be but the thought is it would be comparable to the 15 cents typically charged for paper copies.
Other proposed changes to the law would include requiring clear language governing how requests are to be made, and providing municipalities with technical and funding assistance in improving records management.
Spearheaded by the Association of Washington Cities, the effort also has the support of the Washington State Association of Counties.
Approved by voters in 1972, the public records act protects citizens’ right to know how their governments operate and is a tool to provide accountability.
“We’re not looking for anything too radical,” said Josh Weiss, policy and legislative director of the association of counties in Olympia. “Our members are often viewed as being opposed to open government, but that’s not the case at all.”
A group composed of city, county, state and media representatives has been refining changes that eventually will be proposed to state lawmakers.
There are three draft bills now in Olympia proposing fees for electronic documents, improving training and software for records managements, and establishing a court similar to a small claims court that would exclusively handle disputes over records requests.
Those changes would help agencies respond more quickly and efficiently to requests, said Rep. Joan McBride, D-Kirkland, who is working on the bills.
“It’s an essential part of government that our local agencies produce documents to the public quickly and efficiently when they are requested,” she said.
Rep. Norm Johnson, R-Yakima, also supports the proposed changes. He previously served on the Yakima City Council.
“When I was on the City Council, we had to hire a person just to do public records requests,” he said. “It’s become a very costly thing for the taxpayers, and what it does is it takes away resources from other things.”
Media representatives aren’t sold on all the proposals but primarily support charging for electronic documents, said Rowland Thompson, executive director of Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington.
