Bardin not as transparent as she wants us to think

Olympia City Council candidate Judy Bardin has trouble living up to her political promises of transparency and open government. While Bardin was planning commissioner, she accused city staff and commission members of “compromising the public trust” when they met with local downtown developers to better understand barriers to development.

Planning Commission members had every right to attend these meetings.

To verify Bardin’s conspiracy theory, a citizen filed a public records request for members’ communications regarding these meetings. Everyone complied except Bardin, who claimed “attorney-client privilege” for 19 of her records. The request was amended to exempt her 19 documents.

The city attorney informed Bardin no such attorney-client privilege existed. Nonetheless, she refused to hand over the 19 documents when a subsequent public records request was made. First described as attorney-client documents, Bardin then characterizied them as personal, a claim anyone could make about every requested record!

The city has attempted to retrieve Bardin’s documents that I requested under the Public Records Act. Bardin was specifically told by the city to retain the 19 records for six years under state law. She now brazenly admits she has destroyed the 19 requested documents, violating the records act and undermining her qualification for election to public office.

Olympia

This story was originally published July 22, 2015 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Bardin not as transparent as she wants us to think."