Delays in Providing Palin Emails Exceed Her Term as Governor

MSNBC has this story on the very long delays in getting former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's state emails.

Mechling Settles Public Records Case with City of Monroe

Meredith Mechling, who is a true open-government hero, settled her long and nasty Public Records Act case against the City of Monroe.

She received $157,394 in attorney fees, costs, and penalties. The Public Records Act requires a violating agency to pay these to a successful requestor.

This payment could have been avoided if the City had just provided the records in the first place. Now Meredith Mechling will be portrayed as the "villain" who "cost" the City $157,394. She isn't the villain.

You can count on the City of Monroe using its expensive violation of the law as a reason to provide fewer public records. It "costs" so much, you see.

King County Tackles Social Media Rules for Open Gov't

The Local Open Government Blog, put out by the law firm of Foster Pepper which represents local governments in Public Records Act matters, has this piece on how King County is addressing the open-government ramifications of County use of social media like Facebook and Twitter using County resources. The County has established a work group to make recommendations.

Good for King County. (See: We compliment government when it does the right thing.)

Public Records Show ... Tax-Exempt Hospital Employees Made a Lot of Money

KUOW describes how public records allowed it to find out that 21 employees of tax-exempt hospitals in the Puget Sound area made over $1,000,000.

Not Too Much Open Gov't Going On

We are not on vacation here at og-blog. There hasn't been too much going on in the open government world.

We'll keep you posted.

US Supreme Court Hears Washington State FOIA Case

The Supremes are hearing a FOIA case from western Washington.