Editorial on How Agency Is Reacting to Large Request

This editorial from the Tri-City Herald describes how one large request is affecting an agency. Interesting.

Hat tip to Ramsey for this story.

Seattle Police Must Pay $129,000 in Public Records Act Case

This comes from the Seattle Times.

Hat tip to John for sending this to us. How did we miss this?

DSHS Ordered to Pay $650,000 in Public Records Act Case

Wow. The biggest judgment ever, as far as we know.

AP Study of Open Gov't In Other Countries

A very interesting Associated Press piece on how other countries approach open government.

If you think the US is better than other countries, consider this from the article. When the AP made the same records request to various countries:

"Guatemala sent all documents in 10 days, and Turkey in seven. By comparison, Canada asked for a 200-day extension, and the FBI in the United States responded six months late with a single sheet with four dates, two words and a large blanked section."

VP Biden's Meeting on Open Gov't ... Is Closed to the Public

Sigh.

Signatures of Bellingham Traffic Light Initiative Released

The Bellingham Herald reports on the release of signers of a local initiative concerning traffic lights.

"How To Obtain Public Records" Now Available

The Washington Coalition for Open Government continues its excellent work with its guide, "How to Obtain Public Records" from state and local agencies.

You can click on the name of the agency from which you are seeking records and find that agency's answers to a WCOG survey on how that agency provides records, including how to send in a request to that agency.

Quorum of Port Commissioners Go on Trip ... And Don't Talk About Agency Business

This article from the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin discusses the problem of a quorum of a public body going on a trip (in this case, to Arizona). They cannot discuss agency business or it would be a violation of the Open Public Meetings Act.

It's possible that they did not discuss agency business, as they assert, but it undermines the public's trust in them by having to believe that they spent days together and never talked about the one thing they have in common: agency business.

NOTE: The story quotes Greg Overstreet of Allied Law Group.