WOODLAND — In mid-August, a most unusual notice went out to all of Woodland’s 2,000 utility customers: Neither a bill nor a service alert, the communique let them know a citizen wants the city to share their information as part of a public records request.
State law gives residents the right to access public documents “under reasonable conditions,” according to the Attorney General’s Office.
The Woodland letter explained the city would be providing the name, address and account number for every utility customer who was billed for a two-month period this spring.
The notification comes as Woodland experiences a rise in the number and complexity of public records requests. The size of this particular request made it a topic of debate within the city, even though all the information is fully within the bounds of Washington’s open government laws.
“Because it affects everybody in town, it would almost be irresponsible of us to not let people know that this information is out there and being requested,” said Travis Goddard, Woodland’s director of community development and public records.
The city’s letter said officials “cannot assist any utility customer making a third-party request or provide legal advice” but mentioned two legal paths residents might take if they wanted to try to exclude their information.
The letter also said the city had preemptively received a similar request for the same information on bills issued by Minol, the new company the city is using to handle utility accounts.
The record request was made by Mari Ripp, a former Woodland city clerk and frequent critic of the city’s transparency in private Facebook groups who is known to make numerous public records requests. Ripp suspects the new billing system will come with a corresponding increase in utility rates, though it’s unclear how the information she has requested would prove that.
Ripp told The Daily News via email that her requests have all been in the name of government transparency and the city was inappropriately singling her out by tracking the number of requests made by ex-employees.
“(Woodland) should not be making distinctions in releasing or not releasing records based on the identity of the person … (who) requested the records. But they are,” Ripp said.
The city informed residents it plans to fulfill the record request on Sept. 21, and the letter was designed to “give our customers time to consult counsel.” Goddard said the timeline was meant to let people seek legal advice and schedule a hearing in front of a judge.
That delay is a red flag for Michele Earl-Hubbard, vice president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government. Back in 2013, Earl-Hubbard represented the Seattle Times in a successful public records lawsuit against the Department of Labor & Industry for delaying the release of records, in part to give businesses time to sue to stop their release.
Earl-Hubbard said that because it was unlikely that the utility records could be exempted from the record request, it was debatable whether the letter and delayed request completion needed to happen.
“By saying that in their letter, I think they’re vulnerable to a claim that they are favoring the interest of their customers over the interest of the requester. I think a month is too long,” Earl-Hubbard said.
Record number of requests
The utility record request is one in a rising number of record requests that Woodland has been handling this year.
A report Goddard gave to the Woodland City Council on Aug. 15 said the city had steadily received around 60 record requests a year through 2017. The number of requests jumped to 125 last year, and the city already has received 116 public record requests during the first half of 2022.
And the beat goes on. Between July 1 and Aug. 19, the city received an additional 57 record requests — more than the city received in the entirety of 2017.
Mayor Will Finn said the council would schedule a workshop during its Sept. 6 meeting to discuss how to handle the surge in record requests. Finn told The Daily News via email the city was considering either hiring a new employee to handle records or weekly City Hall closures to give staff time to work on them.
“I’m severely disappointed that we have people in our community that are willing to come through and put such a detriment on us financially,” Finn said during the Aug. 15 council meeting.
A summary of the record requests provided to The Daily News showed little in terms of unusual types of requests. The majority ask the Woodland Police Department for reports, incident logs, personnel records and other information commonly sought.
At least five parties filed requests on Aug. 19 for additional information about the utility record request after the letter was mailed out.
Goddard said the city could generate a report that would include all the utility information in a single spreadsheet, but past experience with Ripp makes her doubt that would satisfy.
Ripp disagreed. She said by email she had originally requested an Excel document of the information but was told the city wasn’t required to create that report.
Clear communication between agencies and the public, Erin-Hubbard said, is critical to facilitate public record demands.
“If you really develop trust with the public records officers with your agency, you will not have to ask as many times, you will not ask as broadly, you will not be as distrustful,” Earl-Hubbard said.
