Had a fun time on Friday calling up other cities and telling them how many public records requests the City of Bainbridge Island receives.
Best (printable) reaction was from the Poulsbo deputy city clerk: “Oh my god, that’s a huge amount!”
I got an even better exclamation from Mercer Island’s city attorney, but (after some pleading on her part), I agreed not to put in print. She felt it unbecoming of a person in her station. Her followup comment echoed Poulsbo reaction.
Fact is, Bainbridge residents are flooding City Hall with five times as many public records requests as comparable cities. And many are so complex that it takes staff days of digging to find and compile the requested info.
Read all about it here.
I suppose that after years of unreturned leters, email and phone calls, inexplicable staff action without public input, coupled with an environment where the City only pays attention to you is when you involve an attorney, people start wondering if there are hidden agendas at work. Its quite unfortunate for a little community like ours to have such problems inside City Hall.