12/09/2005: "SJC In Court Again: Freedom Of Information"

A lawsuit against San Juan County has been filed in Skagit County Superior Court by Piet Visser. Mr. Visser writes a column for The Island Guardian, and has been requesting information from the County as a part of his research into recent land purchases by the BOCC.

According to the suit, Visser submitted a public records request to the County pertaining to land purchase, and was informed the information would be forthcoming. After a number of delays, some of the documents were provided, but 56 documents were withheld by the County, claiming that they "were exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Act".

Of the 56 documents not released, four of them were identified as "personal notes" of Jon Shannon, the Director of Public Works. The notes were described as being "notes of meetings or discussions concerning the County's purchase of the Kellsey South property for the use by Public Works". It is Mr. Visser's belief that notes taken by Mr. Shannon about government business, that are in the records of the County, are subject to the intent of the Freedom of Information act.

When Mr. Visser pressed to have the information, County Prosecuting Attorney Randy Gaylord suggested Visser "file and action in Superior Court" to determine if the records must be released. According to the suit, Gaylord next offered to initiate the legal action in order to minimize the expense. This offer was later withdrawn by Gaylord after the BOCC failed to support the filing of a suit by Gaylord to, in effect, argue that the County's position was correct, and that the documents need not be released.

To date the 56 documents have not been released, and in an attempt to force the County into releasing the information, Mr. Visser instructed his attorney to file suit. A court date has yet to be set.