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.
