Seattle vows open door

CHASTENED by a recent state performance audit, Seattle city officials are making constructive changes to ease the process for citizens requesting public documents.

The City Council this week made common-sense policy changes to improve responses to public-records requests. A spokesman for Mayor Greg Nickels said the mayor's administration would work with the council to implement the changes, noting the mayor also has developed a new public-disclosure Web page.The state performance audit, authorized under Initiative 900, compared how quickly and thoroughly 30 municipal agencies responded to public records request. The state's largest city ranked dead last.

Among the changes initiated by the City Council:

• If a citizen wants a document that is a public record and readily accessible, they can just ask for it. No longer do they have to go through the formality of a stilted records request.

• Whenever possible, the city will provide documents electronically rather than by paper. The practice has been to print it out and charge the requester for the copying.

• When the council receives a request for documents likely held by another department, the request will be forwarded to the right department and the requester notified. Previously, requesters were told to resubmit the request themselves.

These changes come a few months after the council bucked most other state municipalities in supporting a controversial state bill to require municipal governments to record their closed-door sessions.

The city's record on openness in its dealings has been spotty in recent years, but these two actions are strong signs the city is more fully embracing the importance of transparency with citizens.