Records law not a new target for Treppiedi
Rocky Treppiedi is a vocal supporter of limitations on Washington’s public records law.
As an assistant city attorney, Treppiedi has worked – often successfully – to prevent the release of public documents.
In his position, Treppiedi has:
“Fought to limit media access to police Internal Affairs reports and Use of Force documents detailing problems in the deployment of K-9s, Tasers and other weapons, arguing that release of the reports would hamper effective law enforcement.
“Supported the Spokane Police Department when it withheld reports and a jail photograph of Treppiedi’s colleague, former Assistant City Attorney Milt Rowland. Rowland was charged with hitting a Spokane police officer in the jaw when he was arrested in May 1997 and accused of drunken driving. Rowland pleaded guilty to attempted fourth-degree assault.
The Spokesman-Review won a lawsuit in Spokane County Superior Court for access to the Rowland report, but lost its bid to obtain his booking photograph when the Washington Supreme Court ruled it was exempted from public disclosure. The court said Rowland’s records should have been made public, but only after the case was forwarded to prosecutors.
“Championed a current City Hall lobbying effort to get the Legislature to expand attorney-client privilege exemptions in the state Public Records Act and bar “overly broad” requests for government documents.
In September 2005, Attorney General Rob McKenna held a hearing in Spokane on proposed revisions to the state’s Public Records Act. One of the sponsors was The Spokesman-Review.
Treppiedi publicly objected to the newspaper’s sponsorship of the event, accusing its editors of being too-eager advocates for the release of public documents. He said he was speaking that night as an elected school board member, not as a city lawyer.
“They’re inflaming the public rather than informing the public,” he said in an interview during the event.
Treppiedi called the burden on public agencies to provide records to the press and public an “unfunded mandate” from the Legislature. He has also complained that public records requests are “out of control.”
Also at the McKenna hearing, Treppiedi said he had never deliberately withheld documents.
“I’ve faced hundreds of public records requests. The goal is always compliance with the law,” Treppiedi said in his testimony.
But freelance journalist Tim Connor, who tangled with City Hall while investigating the River Park Square public-private partnership, said he was stunned by Treppiedi’s remarks.
“He was openly hostile to the spirit of the Public Records Act,” Connor said of Treppiedi.
Treppiedi has called for the expansion of the “attorney-client privilege” exemption in the law and for reduced penalties against government agencies when they make “good faith” efforts to respond to records requests.
In October, the city of Spokane agreed to pay $299,000 – one of the largest public records fines in state history – to Connor and the publishers of Camas Magazine for illegally withholding about 90 public documents related to the River Park Square garage. The city also issued an unprecedented written apology. Treppiedi was not directly involved in the controversy.
Treppiedi’s City Hall computer files, obtained in a public records request, show he closely tracks proposed legislation on the public records law, as well as public records issues affecting Spokane Public Schools.
Treppiedi’s stance on public records is opposed by civil rights activists, including attorney Breean Beggs of the Center for Justice.
“Governments need to produce more quickly and be penalized more heavily” when they don’t, Beggs said at McKenna’s hearing.
Michele Earl-Hubbard, a private attorney in Seattle and past president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, said she’s aware of Treppiedi’s views regarding public records but hasn’t had any direct dealings with him.
“I think as a matter of public policy, lawyers who work at public expense shouldn’t argue against the public’s interest,” she said.