YAKIMA -- Only the city of Seattle fared worse than Yakima County in a public records performance audit the state Auditor's Office will release later this month.
According to a draft version of the audit report, the county adequately responded to five out of 10 anonymous requests for public records. The city of Yakima, by contrast, scored a perfect 10 out of 10.
County officials on Monday strongly disputed the report's findings, saying the county filled all of the requests as directed under law.
"We should be 10 out of 10 as well," said Terry Austin, chief civil deputy prosecuting attorney for the county.
Mindy Chambers, spokeswoman for the Auditor's Office, said that in four cases, her office's anonymous requesters never got a response. Chambers said she believes Yakima County staff when they insist they drafted responses to all of her office's anonymous requesters, but somewhere along the line those responses went undelivered. She said county officials told her it could have been a problem with their mail system.
"We didn't go back in and verify the 'why?' " she said. "That's just what they told us."
Chambers said public records officials around the state realized early on that they were being tested, and she has no reason to think the county is being less than honest.
County public records official Stormy Miller on Monday produced copies of her responses to the requests. She also provided a copy of a March 12 letter County Commissioner Ron Gamache sent the Auditor's Office in protest of the audit findings.
"We are greatly concerned that you will report to the public that Yakima County failed to respond to five out of 10 public records requests," the letter states. "Such statements will be untrue. ... False statement made by state agency about the performance of local government does an injustice to the taxpayers and constituents we serve."
The audit tested the state's 10 largest counties, 10 largest cities and 10 state agencies. From November 2006 through September 2007, it had agents around the state request copies of things such as sexual harassment policies, job descriptions and invoices from employees' public cell phones. No other county scored lower than an eight.
Government agencies are required to make public most records for the sake of transparent operation and accountability to the public. Failure to respond to public records request can open a government agency to legal action from those who request the information.
The audit was conducted as a measuring stick for how well agencies statewide administer the Public Records Act. It was not an effort to prove the failings of any agency but to show which agencies were doing well and to hold them up as models, Chambers said.
"In addition to the financial expense of being involved in a legal dispute involving public records, failing to respond properly to public records requests can erode the public's overall trust and regard for the entity and government in general," the audit report states.
The Yakima Herald-Republic obtained the report from city of Yakima officials, who touted their success in the audit at a Monday morning meeting. It is in draft form and has not been publicly released.
"We'll see what they say in the final report," Austin said.
* Pat Muir can be reached at 577-7693, or at pmuir@yakimaherald.com.
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