Moscow-Pullman Daily News Blogs

In Moscow, that’s playing out right now — even though the council went ahead with its ill-conceived fee schedule. It’s a schedule that’s designed with a specific individual in mind, and that’s not right.

In looking at the issue, we decided to find out how many records requests the city receives. It just seemed a natural question, especially since part of the justification for the fee increase was the pressure it puts on city staff.

From March 1 through April 21, the city of Moscow received 57 public records requests (58 if you count the one we filed to get the records requests). Most of those, 45, were filed with the police department in order to obtain police reports.

Of the remaining 12, four were from a single individual who wanted video files of the council meetings, one was for copies of council meeting minutes, five were from Wayne Fox — the individual who appears to be at the center of the public records fee flap — and a couple others were for miscellaneous items (including one request from someone who wanted to see what Wayne Fox’s records requests said).

To be fair, the city is not the only agency that utilizes that tactic. Council members should, however, be aware of how these fees are used. Here’s a current example. We’re working through another records request right now in which the state agency, after stalling beyond what is statutorily allowed, dropped us a letter saying we’d have to fork over some cash before it will begin processing our request. As a business that puts a premium on obtaining access to those documents, we’ll continue to press forward.

But the public records law isn’t designed just for news organizations. It’s designed so everyday people can find out what people are doing (or not doing) on their behalf. There’s no language in the law that says it’s there for reporters or residents of a jurisdiction. It’s for the public period.

The council needs to rethink its decision before it travels too far down a road that ultimately shuts residents out of the process.