City of Seattle admits to violating Public Records Act in court filing
The city of Seattle has admitted to violating the Washington State Public Records Act (PRA) within their February 18 response to a lawsuit filed by me, Glen Stellmacher, in King County Superior Court.
The initial lawsuit alleged that the city violated the PRA in processing two separate public disclosure requests made to the Seattle Police Department (SPD).
In their response filing, the Seattle City Attorney's Office "admits it failed to provide the fullest assistance" in processing a request I made for text messages from a (now former) SPD executive, Chris Fisher. The city also admitted that it failed to respond to the request with reasonable thoroughness and diligence.
I'll have another report on these texts specifically coming out soon. Previously, I've written two reports that mention Fisher with Real Change and with Prism. Those should give you a good reference about where this is heading.
The city's recent legal response also "admits to violating the PRA before the administrative appeal" I made to another SPD public records request for emails between an SPD officer and an FBI agent. After the SPD closed this request without providing any records whatsoever, I formally requested an appeal. After my appeal, the SPD provided numerous records of communications between the FBI and the SPD during the 2020 protests. Before my appeal, the city admitted to violating the PRA.
The city also officially denied numerous other allegations in the lawsuit, including that there is any ongoing violation of the PRA still occurring, and that records responsive to my two public records requests are still being withheld.
The resolution of this lawsuit remains fluid and is ongoing.
This is the second lawsuit I have filed against the SPD. The first lawsuit, alleged the SPD failed to turn over text messages as required under the PRA. To resolve that case, the City of Seattle and I agreed to a $51,250 settlement. The Seattle Times also recently filed a lawsuit against the city concerning the handling of public records requests within the SPD.