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Belfair Water District is a small water district with approximately 1,200 customers located near Bremerton. The District is the latest public agency to face civil penalties for violations of the Washington Public Records Act. Judge rules against Belfair Water District in public records dispute, Steven Gardner, Kitsap Sun, August 6, 2011. The litigated requests began in 2009 when Greg Waggett asked for copies of the District’s insurance policy and current budget.  Around the same time, Bonnie Pope, another requestor, requested copies of District commissioners’ expense reimbursement records. These were apparently the first public record requests handled by District staff.

Following these initial requests, Waggett began submitting increasingly burdensome requests to the District. According to the District, responding to these requests began to take up significant portions of district staff time and, ultimately, became so burdensome that two district employees quit their District jobs.

According to the District, Waggett also began to harass District staff. This harassment led the District Manager, Dave Tipton, to seek an anti-harassment order against Waggett. A court issued an anti-harassment order against Waggett for one year.

A year later, a hearing was held to determine whether the anti-harassment order should be renewed. The judge ultimately declined to renew the order citing the fact that Waggett had not violated the order in the previous year. Following this decision, Waggett’s attorney used the hearing to submit additional public record requests to the District. Waggett’s attorney handed Tipton public record requests in the courtroom and even had the judge acknowledge this in the official hearing record. Tipton would later argue that he never “accepted” these requests.

Following the court hearing, Waggett and Pope sued the water district alleging numerous violations of the Public Records Act (Chapter 42.56 RCW). Waggett and Pope argued that the District summarily denied requests instead of requesting clarifications; refused to accept record requests submitted through certified mail; and failed to respond to the requests submitted to Tipton at the court hearing. In early August, a Mason County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the requestors and found that the District would be liable for the attorneys fees of the requestors and daily civil penalties. The judge will later determine the total amount due from the District.

This case illustrates that public agencies faced with harassing public record requestors may successfully obtain anti-harassment orders (or, declaratory judgments) to protect staff. Anti-harassment orders could prove to be a valuable tool in preventing requestors from interfering with public business. However, agencies should be aware that obtaining an anti-harassment order against a requestor does not relieve the agency’s obligation to respond to otherwise valid requests submitted by the requester. As this case shows, it is entirely possible that an agency can obtain an anti-harassment order against a requestor and still be found in violation of the Public Records Act.
 

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The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 551-559, protects a corporation’s interest in “personal privacy.” In September of 2009, the Third Circuit ruled in favor of AT&T and against the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) in finding that FOIA’s law enforcement exemption protects a corporation’s interest in “personal privacy.” AT&T Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission, 582 F.3d 490 (2009). The FCC has appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard arguments in the case on January 19, 2011. See Court Weighs Whether Corporations Have Personal Privacy Rights, New York Times, January 19, 2011.

FOIA exempts from mandatory disclosure records collected for law enforcement purposes to the extent disclosure “could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(C). FOIA does not define personal, but does define person as “an individual, partnership, corporation, association, or public or private organization other than an agency.” 5 U.S.C. § 551(2). 

This case arose from a FCC investigation into whether AT&T overcharged the U.S. government for an AT&T program. Under the program, AT&T provided equipment and services to elementary and secondary schools and then billed the U.S. government for program costs. In 2004, AT&T discovered that that it may have overcharged the U.S. government for some services, and voluntarily reported the issue to the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau. The FCC investigated the matter and the issue was ultimately settled.

Following the investigation, CompTel, a trade association representing AT&T competitors, submitted a FOIA request to the FCC seeking records relating to the AT&T investigation. AT&T opposed the disclosure, arguing that the records were collected as part of a law enforcement investigation and the disclosure of the records would constitute an unwarranted invasion of AT&T’s privacy. The FCC rejected AT&T’s argument stating “personal privacy” does not apply to corporations. 

AT&T ultimately appealed the decision to the Third Circuit, which ruled in favor of AT&T.  The Third Circuit held that “FOIA’s text unambiguously indicates that a corporation may have a ‘personal privacy’ interest within the meaning of the [law enforcement exemption].” 582 F.3d at 498. The Third Circuit remanded to determine whether the disclosure of these particular documents would constitute an unwarranted invasion of AT&T’s personal privacy.

The Third Circuit’s opinion noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has never squarely rejected a corporation’s ability to claim a personal privacy interest.  The Supreme Court’s decision in Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T Inc. will test this precedent. 

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The Seattle Times reported on the Supreme Court arguments in a dispute between the Yakima Herald-Republic and Yakima County regarding the disclosure of copies of court documents.  The dispute involves the billing records of defense attorneys in a murder case that were placed under seal by a judge.  The judiciary is exempt from the disclosure requirements of the Public Records Act, but in this case the County also has copies of the records, and the newspaper sought disclosure of the records from the County.  At issue is whether copies of documents also located in a sealed court file are subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act. The Seattle Times article is available here.

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