Make the public records ‘gotcha’ less lucrative
I agree with Rep. Schmick, let’s take the “gotcha” out of public records requests. That can be done by helping jurisdictions with their filing system, not by prohibiting public disclosure.
The Joint Legislature Audit and Review Committee has been tracking statistics on requests since 2017. It shows the number of court claims against reporting agencies declined slightly between 2018 and 2022.
On average, less than 0.1% of records requests lead to court claims. Less than 1% of state and local agency expenditures is spent on records requests. The money spent on records requests has grown modestly since 2019 and was outpaced by the rate of inflation.
Overall growth in government spending between 2018 and 2021 far outpaced agencies’ expenditures on records requests.
The issue is to figure out how smaller jurisdictions can manage records so the public has access to information and those who have made a cottage industry out of suing jurisdictions don’t take advantage of the scarce staff and capacity.
The Legislature tried to address this, but stopping public access isn’t the solution, it is in working with local jurisdictions so they can respond to requests in a timely manner. Make it so “gotcha” is no longer a lucrative game.
Lunell Haught
Cheney
Use planes for humanitarian aid in Gaza
While driving down the road to I-90 from Cheney, I saw KC135 refueling planes circling around Fairchild AirForce Base.
It occurred to me that there are many military airplanes waiting to be deployed.
These airplanes could be used to avoid further starvation and death in Gaza by airlifting food, water and medicine in this war-torn region.
And, to help Americans to honor our value for human life, we could send hospital ships like Mercy Corp, to the Mediterranean Sea to treat injured women and children, and of course men.
Involving the military in humanitarian endeavors instead of violence, would likely result in less casualties — both physical and mental — among our returning soldiers and veterans.
So, these efforts would help Americans as well as the Palestinians. Plus, the U.S. would regain its place as admired leader in the world.
Just thinkin’ – a win-win situation overall.
Nancy Street
Cheney
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