Thurston shows well in draft audit

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published April 01, 2008

The state auditor's spot check of state, city and county governments shows some are honoring public-records requests better than others.

A draft report from a months-long audit of government performance shows a great range — from the top timeliness and responsiveness by the state Department of General Administration to the slower, spottier responses by Seattle, Yakima County and the state Department of Corrections.

Officials with Thurston County, the lone South Sound government examined, insisted their responses were good. By some measures, the county fell into the middle of the pack, but it also got noticed for examples of several "best practices."

Mindy Chambers, a spokeswoman for state Auditor Brian Sonntag, said the audit was not meant as a compliance measurement, but rather as a broad measure that might shed light on better ways of doing business.

"It is a spot check, but several things we were trying to find out in the course of the performance audit is what kinds of systems are in place that help people do a good job of this," Chambers said. "What we found was in the culture of compliance … that training is very good to have."

Ten state agencies and the 10 largest cities and counties were audited by teams of people who made 10 requests by e-mail, by letter or in person in ways that shielded their affiliation with the state Auditor's Office.

Thurston County rated a bit slower than some governments but was judged to be responsive in eight of 10 instances.

For the two other requests, the county did not provide records but did see if it had any, then sent the records requester to the independently elected county sheriff and auditor.

The county insists that was appropriate.

"The county commissioners cannot compel these independently elected officials. They are accountable to the voters independently," chief county administrative officer Don Krupp said Tuesday. "In the same way the public lands commissioner cannot tell the director of the community trade and economic development how to respond to public-records requests."