Ken Mann's blog (Inside Mann) has been discussing public records requests.
What was building into a good ol' fashioned flame war has since transformed into some sort of online "bromantic comedy", and while the thread gathers for the inevitable group hug, I figured I'd pipe up now.
Ken Mann has repeated a central theme during this discussion...
... It has been written here that uncovering corruption and incompetence is the goal of these PDRs. Therefore, when I am the subject of these requests, the implication is that I am incompetent or corrupt.
As I have said many times already: I support the law, I support Wendy’s right to be a watchdog, and I am glad she (and others) are paying attention.
I think it is a legitimate observation that the time all of us spend dealing with PDRs subtracts from our primary duties.
I would respectfully request that Wendy direct her PDRs at those she suspects of malfeasance and let me get back to work.
I think it is a legitimate observation (”complaint”, “whine”) that the time all of us (staff, public, electeds) spend dealing with PDRs subtracts from our primary duties. A more targeted approach would be appreciated by those of us who are not suspected of corruption and/or incompetence.
and Barbara Brenner was quoted quite notably as well...
It is not a difficult thing to tie up government with public disclosure requests that are overly broad in nature because we live in a democracy where some of us bend over backwards to protect the “public” in public process.
Public disclosure is a drag for elected officials and county staff. If an elected official isn't doing anything wrong the official should be spared intense scrutiny. It can be distracting. Got it.
Ken Mann and Barbara Brenner are missing a very subtle but important point to all of this.
Communications to and from elected officials and executive management are designated by the Washington State Archives as "Archival (Appraisal Required)".
The retention schedule for local governments (CORE) describes it this way:
Archival (Appraisal Required)Public records which may possess enduring legal and/or historic value and must be appraised by the Washington State Archives on an individual basis.Page 160 of Local Government Common Records Retention Schedule (CORE) Version 2.1 (July 2010)
The documents that elected officials are using and creating may have enduring historic value just because elected officials are using and creating them.
It is important to retain these records, and even occasionally demand to see them, because these documents are living history. A public record doesn't have to document something bad to be of historic interest or to be illuminating. These records are not important because they document what government does wrong, they are important because they document what the government does period.
If John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and whoever else you feel like naming hadn't keep and retained copious records, we would have much less of a clue of our own history. Their history was recorded on ink and paper. Our history is being recorded electronically now.
The documents that elected officials are using and generating today may be mundane and entirely innocent, but we will not know the historic significance of them until many years from now. In fact, we may not fully realized the historic significance of an elected officials writing and reading during our lifetimes. That's how history works. Very slowly.
The Washington State Archives will judge what needs to be retained, and what may have enduring historical value, as best they can.
It is part of the government's job (including Ken Mann and Barbara Brenner) to preserve the documents of their actions for the historic record, and keep them available to the public in the here and now.
History will be judged in the years to come, but it is made all the time.
Documenting that history properly is not an interruption of the government's primary job.
It is part of government's primary job. And that includes elected officials like Ken Mann and Barbara Brenner.
They need to get back to work now.
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