Legislature behind records issue

I am writing in support of the lawyers in Spokane’s City Attorney’s Office. Lawyers in that office, including Pat Dalton, were recently accused of sitting on public records requests in order to help get Mayor Condon re-elected. That is absurd.

I was an assistant city attorney there for 14 years and worked closely with Pat Dalton. The people of Spokane could not ask for a more dedicated, ethical, hard-working group of lawyers. Pat Dalton in particular represents everything good about the practice of law.

The public records laws are very important, but they come at a cost. The Legislature does not fund cities for the workload the public records laws creates for them. A lawyer like Dalton may have to spend weeks at a time reviewing thousands of records to make sure they are responsive, unprivileged and subject to disclosure. In the meantime, Pat’s regular workload does not go away.

That is why it can take time to respond to large records requests. The fault lies with the Legislature, not with Pat Dalton. We simply need more people if we want cities like Spokane to comply with the laws more promptly. The public needs to understand this.

Milton Rowland

Spokane