Among the agenda items for the Port of Centralia commissioners during their regular Wednesday, Feb. 5, meeting was consideration of a resolution containing updated public records policies and procedures for the port.
The updated public records policies and procedures were unanimously approved by the commissioners.
“You are required, under state law, to have procedures in place, and it was just probably time to update these,” port attorney Ray Liaw told the commissioners. “... This updated policy has a little more detail than the prior policy.”
She added that the updated policies aligned with most other municipalities’ policies pertaining to public records requests.
While the updated policies were unanimously approved, some discussion was held among the commissioners and Liaw as to certain concerns about some of the phrasing.
Commissioner Peter Lahmann was particularly concerned about the port’s public records request log, a state law requirement. The log is subject to public records requests, including personal contact information of requesters.
“It seems like you would disclose maybe who the requester was, but their personal contact information? I mean, if there’s a document that has our personal contact information on it, our personal contact is redacted,” Lahmann said.
According to Liaw, state law only protects the personal information of government staff and officials. However, there are no legal exemptions to anything the port receives from a member of the public, from public records requests to lease agreements.
“Some people go to great lengths to hide (personal information), create a pretend email address, because they don’t want (their real email) to become public, and that’s within their right,” Liaw said.
She added for public records requests, “there needs to be a way to locate the requester to give them the information.”
While state law pertaining to what information is required to be kept in the log does not explicitly list personal contact information of the requester, it also states information in logs “shall include but not be limited to” — meaning municipalities and agencies can add requirements for additional information.
The logs are considered public record and subject to disclosure.
For more information on the Port of Centralia’s new public records policies and procedures, go to page four of the Feb. 5 commissioner meeting agenda on the Port’s website at https://tinyurl.com/yc8anmhu.
To view Washington state law pertaining to public records request logs, visit the state Legislature’s website at https://tinyurl.com/4f6rv42d. The state’s full Public Records Act can be found at https://tinyurl.com/5n7cp3p4.
