City public records steps

CHENEY – City Council took a pair of steps last Tuesday night (Jan. 26) they hope will ensure transparency with city records and negotiations.

The first was the approval of the two-year labor contract with the Cheney Police Guild. The agreement, which provides a 2% cost of living adjustment in both years along with changes to some of the document’s language, was originally presented to the council for approval at the Jan. 12 meeting.

At that meeting, Councilman Paul Schmidt asked the contract be tabled and returned for consideration on Jan. 26 with a version that showed the language that had been “red lined” out of the previous contract — which was presented for the council’s review Tuesday night. Schmidt said his desires to have the rough contract presented during council stemmed from increased activity from a “political action group out of Olympia” that is pushing for all collective bargaining be done in public settings.

“I don’t have any hard issue with that, it’s more the underlining reason from this group that I consider somewhat nefarious which, if you follow their money, this group represents, certain large businesses that are predominately anti-union,” Schmidt said.

That group is the Freedom Foundation. According to its website, the Freedom Foundation — founded in 1991 as the Evergreen Freedom Foundation — is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit “think and action tank” whose mission “is to advance individual liberty, free enterprise, and limited, accountable government.”

The Foundation front page of its website details activity results in the past few weeks against several regional unions, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). One article from Jan. 13 features the headline “The 350-member hole we blew in SEIU 721 just became 650.”

According to the Center for Media and Democracy’s Sourcewatch page tracking corporations, the Freedom Foundation is not required to disclose its donors, but from 1998 – 2019 has received almost $3.1 million from the conservative Bradley Foundation, one of America’s largest right-wing foundations, and $261,500 from the Bradly Impact Fund, which is aligned with the Bradley Foundation. It’s also received $275,000 between 2017 – 2018 from the Charles Koch Foundation, $500,000 from the Roe Foundation from 1998 – 2018 and $695,313 between 2010 – 2017 from the Donors Capital Fund.

Without naming them specifically, Schmidt said he felt the Freedom Foundation in pushing for open public has “other designs,” and sooner or later could push for more expansive changes. Being able to have red-lined contracts during open council meetings would allow for reviews while still enabling negotiators to do their work without revealing specifics of negotiations, specifics that can sometimes become personal.

“It’s somewhat like when you go to the ball game and have a hot dog, you know you’re going to have a hot dog you can read the ingredients and see what’s in it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you want to see the hot dog being made,” he added. “That’s what these negotiations really are.”

A review of the contract indicates that language changes went beyond previous discussions at the last council meeting regarding including additional sick day capabilities for new employees. Language requiring police employees to be members of the Guild “in good standing” were removed and replaced with language that recognizes employees may become Guild members, but would not be discriminated against in contract terms if they were not.

In a Jan. 29 interview, City Administrator Mark Schuller said he agreed with Schmidt about providing red-lined contract documents for public review, adding the city would make it a practice from here forward.

“At the end of the day, it’s not a terrible thing,” he said. “The council is very thoughtful on everything put in front of them, scrutinizing and asking good questions. They don’t rubber stamp anything.”

The second move to help with transparency was the creation of a records manager position, which was immediately filled by former police communications director Cathy Munoz. Schuller said Munoz extensive knowledge of public record keeping as communications manager will help the city expedite and fully meet public records requests.

– John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].