Palouse citizens ask for records fee bill

Four Palouse residents are lobbying State Rep. Susan Fagan of Pullman to propose a new state law on fees for public record requests.

The request derives from a stream of requests from citizens Steve McGehee and Jim Farr which has caused city staffers at Palouse to work extra hours.

The Palouse group believes Palouse and other towns could have more protection if the state produces a law allowing cities a way to charge for time spent responding to the requests.

“It’s something that would help not only the city of Palouse, but also other cities in the state of Washington,” said Connie Newman, who is leading the group of citizens.

Palouse clerk/treasurer Joyce Beeson said in a separate interview she has worked about 15 extra hours in the previous four weeks to respond to the requests.

Newman will meet with Rep. Fagan this week and ask her to present a bill that charges some kind of hourly fee for time spent when a person presents a request to a city.

During an interview with the Gazette Dec. 18, Fagan said she had not yet spoken in depth with Newman on the issue. She couldn’t yet comment on whether or not she would be interested in pursuing some sort of legislation.

From February to November of this year, McGehee and Farr have submitted 19 public records request forms with a total of 92 requests. They question the city’s financial dealings.

McGehee said their extensive paperwork is to document a city he believes is shuffling its faulty finances under the rug. He also complained to WSU where Palouse mayor Michael Echanove works in the Information Technology office.

McGehee told them Echanove spent time working for the city while on the clock at WSU. Echanove is currently up for discipline at WSU after the WSU internal audit office found he had made an excessive number of phone calls while on the WSU clock.

“I don’t really understand what their motivations are. They make a lot of accusations and they do a lot of research to be able to support them, which they don’t seem to be able to do,” Newman said. “It’s baffling to me. In the meantime, we need to be able to manage the public records requests that continue to come in. It’s something we can do. It’s something the city can put their energy in.”

Rep. Fagan said some type of balance should be achieved between the people’s right to know versus a small-town government protecting itself against demanding requests.

“There’s got to be a balance between [that and] the people’s right to know,” she said.

Fagan said she firmly believes in open government, but could also see how Palouse’s situation could be troubling.

Newman became interested in the topic after she heard Palouse city staff were very tired and nervous by the constant requests. She took out her own public records request last fall to determine how many requests McGehee and Farr had submitted.

Beeson said the requests are overwhelming.

“I suppose it could be in the best interests of the city to have some sort of fee so the city can be compensated for these abundant requests,” Beeson said.

Newman will present Fagan with a “quick sheet” on her team’s findings. The three other people working on this are Tracy Milano, wife of Palouse city councilman Mike Milano and Cecil Floyd, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Palouse council this year, and Doreen Hanson.

Their research took a snapshot of all 50 states’ policies on fees for requests. They are getting their data from two national Web sites on public records requests.