An undercover study by the State Auditor’s Office gave Whatcom County government high marks for responding to public records requests, according to a draft report from the agency.
The state report says that Whatcom County had good response times to nearly every records request, has an exemplary Web site for information on such requests, and beats most averages on response times.
The state report looked at the 10 largest cities, counties and state agencies in Washington, finding that most entities complied within reasonable time frames and followed most laws. But the report also showed that some agencies often did unnecessary shuffling of public records requests through the bureaucracy.
“We’re pleased with the report, because it verifies and compliments Whatcom County for its efforts around public disclosure responses,” said Deputy Administrator Dewey Desler. “We welcome these kinds of analyses and reviews. As far as we’re concerned, if somebody can tell us even how to do things better, which we have done here, then we want to take advantage of it and want to use it.”
Whatcom County was given kudos for its response times and following most best practices, but was dinged two times for minor issues.
In one instance, the county redacted information from employee travel vouchers legitimately, the report states, but didn’t cite the specific section of state law that allowed the exemption, which is required under the state’s Public Records Act.
Desler said that was a misstep and they will remind employees to include legal citations in the future.
In records received by The Bellingham Herald, information that is redacted generally includes those legal citations.
In the other instance, the county received a request and prepared a response, but the requestor didn’t receive the response.
Desler said that in exit interviews with state audit staff, county officials explained the response was sent via e-mail and they had a record to prove that. State officials said they did have some information that showed that 5 percent of emails don’t make it to their destination, and that could have been the case here, Desler said.
State Auditor’s Office spokeswoman Mindy Chambers confirmed that, and said the agency was impressed with the county’s Web site — it was cited as the main example of good practices in the report — and that the county’s overall performance was good.
She cautioned that the results are still in draft form and that it’s only a “snapshot.”
“It’s just this little piece of time,” she said, acknowledging that her comments were generally more for agencies that might have had some negative issues, not Whatcom County.
“I think generally, if you look at what happened with the county, it’s good stuff,” she said.