As I mentioned previously when you receive documents in response to your PRR be sure to study them carefully as you will inevitably find information that directly relates to your PRR as well as other interesting cases in need of future PRR follow-up.

 

As you may be aware Ms. Terri Pfister offered me the opportunity to purchase a Disc containing emails and other information which she indicated were responsive to my PRR. I went ahead and purchased the Disc, a copy of which was also provided to other local media outlets. The information on the Disc is of course only partially responsive to my PRR, and I continue to fight that battle.

 

The Disc does however contain a lot of information for follow-up on a number of issues concerning the Cotton/Straub case as well as other high profile cases and issues involving SPD, Frank Straub, and several others. I’m in the process of analyzing the information contained on the Disc and will write articles concerning my findings later.

 

One item I found relates directly to my PRR as well as other PRRs that have been submitted to the City. It also provides some insight as to the nonsensical defense Mayor Condon is using for not releasing the Cotton/Straub information until after the election. It is pretty easy for me to predict what one of the findings will be of the City Council “Independent Investigation”. My prediction is that the findings will include a long explanation of how Ms. Pfister’s office is understaffed, SPD Records is understaffed, the Enterprise Vault System sucks, and the Public Records Act is too hard to understand. Some of that will be true, but not all.

 

FIRST SOME BACKGROUND

 

As many of you know, including the SR staff whom I have emailed a number of times about the issue, I have continually pointed out that SPD and the City has released to the media personal information about individuals contained in police reports and other documents. For example; in the much publicized Rachael Dolezal case the SR in a story linked a police report made by Dolezal that had not been redacted by SPD and contained her personal information including address, phone numbers, date of birth, etc. all of which could have easily been used for Identity Theft or in the case of Dolezal locate her and do bad things. Release of that type of information is in direct violation of Washington States Public Records Act and could easily result in an expensive lawsuit against the City of Spokane (That’s us folks!).

 

Here is just one of the many times I mentioned the issue in hopes the media or someone would get after it. No one did.

 

 

 

http://m.spokesman.com/stories/2015/feb/20/handling-of-spokane-transgender-attack-detailed/

 

NOW TO THE NITTY GRITTY

 

The pieces of information below, copied from the Disc I received, point out some obvious problems when it comes to PRRs, as well as SPD and City Management.

 

The link below is a letter to Tim Schwering from Union Local 270 trying to resolve an issue brought forth by an SPD Records Clerk. The issues the Records Clerk brings up are very, very legitimate concerns, not only for the Records Clerk but also for the Citizens of Spokane. If you read the letter you will find it points out my concerns and it also has to make one wonder if the standard wait for your records time frame is two years as Ms. Pfister told me, it would take to fulfill my PRR. Another question that arises is that SPD spent a lot of our money on some fancy report redaction software that anyone can tell in reviewing public records releases…DOES NOT WORK. The thing is, SPD and the City know darn good and well it doesn’t work.

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/42b71aee-bcac-47ad-83cf-c3dd9d525039

 

This is a copy of an email Tim Schwering sent to the various players in the management game with the above letter from 270 attached. His email shows, IMO, just how seriously Schwering and apparently others like to make light of serious issues, complaints, and the possibility the City might have to spread more of OUR money around. You can draw your own conclusions about his email.

 

 

 

 

A LITTLE TEASER

If one were to study the information in the Disc released by Terri Pfister they would find a lot of good information regarding the Cotton/Straub case but beyond that case others as well including what appears to be a deal made by Frank Straub in a very high profile SPD case that had many people shaking their heads. I am going to wait and see what other local media outlets will do with the information, if anything, but I will report on it.