Mayoral emails, collision reports, body-worn camera footage and firefighter tributes: public records tell many stories

A few other stories we came across while testing recording systems in the Pacific Northwest

By Daniel Walters / InvestigateWest

Request a registry of virtually any city’s registry and you’ll find reporters looking for stories: mayoral parking tickets in Spokane, provincial court case success rates in Vancouver, illegal logging in Tacoma and rumors of secret tunnels in Boise.

For InvestigateWest, our requests focused on the public records process itself. First, we asked 15 cities for their public records request log between November 2022 and November 2023. Next, we asked for all communications involving a mayor, city administrator, or manager from a week in October.

We found wide variations in speed, cost, and completeness across cities. But the content of the records themselves told a story about the wide range of ways people use public records and what they can learn from them.

A THOUSAND LITTLE QUESTIONS

Of course there were a lot of requests from the media.. A Daily Dot reporter sought information on eBike fires. A Seattle Times reporter asked for three weeks of data on clearing homeless camps. A VICE Media reporter wanted national data on the huge increase in Kia and Hyundai car thefts.

A text exchange with Tacoma City Manager Elizabeth Pauli shows how public officials are coping with a week that has included racist comments at a public meeting, a train derailment, a bridge collision, accusations of racial bias and the fallout from an attack on Israel. (Graphic by Daniel Walters/InvestigateWest)

However, media requests were only a small part total — dwarfed by requests from insurance companies, lawyers, big data aggregators, real estate investors and other members of the public. Tens of thousands of requests that cities received were simply for reports of vehicle collisions. Others showed real estate investors looking for listings of properties with vacant homes, fire-damaged structures, overgrown grass, damaged sidewalks and unpaid taxes.

Add dozens of scientists and researchers. The requests came from a doctoral student researching gifts Seattle gave to Chinese President Xi Jinping, a College of Idaho student researching racist housing restrictions and a former police officer collecting data on five years of police chases.

There were private detectives, environmental inspectors and defense attorneys there. Two months before Tacoma football player Kelee Ringo was drafted as a cornerback by the Philadelphia Eagles, someone posing as a “licensed professional investigator” working for “several professional sports organizations” requested all police records, including juvenile records, that might relate to Ringo.

True crime TV shows like “Almost Unsolved” and “See No Evil,” wanted body-worn camera footage of a homeless encampment and “officers being stung by a swarm of wasps” in Seattle.

Prada Portland PDX, a left-wing activist collective, submitted a large number of document requests to the Portland Police Bureau. Right-wing lawyer in preparing a religious discrimination lawsuit against the Spokane City Council, it requested “all written records of every city council member relating to Christianity.”

Other requests read like sad — or touching — one-sentence stories.In Spokane, a mother explained that she called the fire department because the door to her AirBnb was jammed and she had to get her children out through a window.

“I need this documented record of the incident to provide to my ex-husband’s lawyer because he accuses me of taking the kids to school late that day,” she wrote.

In Boise, Winston Moore, a nearly 100-year-old former real estate developer in Boisehe also wanted the fire department file. Last year, in the early morning hours of November 7, Moore collapsed and his family was unable to help him.

“Several wonderful firefighters responded and helped me up off the floor, making sure I was okay,” Moore wrote in his request. “I would like to know which fire department responded so I can thank them.”

ONLY ONE WEEK

Any document request may reveal a number of other issues worth investigating.

When we asked for a weekly selection of emails from mayors and administrators across the region, we chose the period from October 7 to 14, the week after the Hamas attacks in Israel.

Text messages show Hillsboro Mayor Steve Callaway mocking another mayor’s presentation at the 2023 League of Oregon Cities conference. (graphic by Daniel Walters/InvestigateWest)

In one set of emails, Bellevue Deputy Mayor Jared Nieuwenhuis enthusiastically argued that while the city “was not created to light up City Hall in the colors of Israel, we can raise the flag of Israel” in solidarity. The city manager was cautious, noting that Bellevue’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer believed the city should “stay away” from the issue.

Sometimes the details included in the documents were trivial or personal: The mayor of Portland rebuilt his dishwasher. The mayor of Vancouver couldn’t decide between pizza or a burrito for dinner. The mayor of Bellevue grew up fearing earthquakes in California, so after the ground shook on October 9, she abruptly left the event to go home.

Many records revealed employee frustrationIn Hillsboro, the fire department was embroiled in a dispute over a firefighters union grievance, while its municipal court struggled with staffing shortages and burnout.

In Idaho Falls, an airport employee asked the mayor that “the work environment at the airport is becoming more toxic by the day” and to “respect HR’s time to conduct a thorough investigation, but still demand accountability and action.”

The Idaho Falls police chief said that after the officer was stabbed with a used needle, he was initially told he had to pay $4,500 out of pocket for medication to treat it, noting that “our workers’ compensation has a reputation for not providing timely reimbursement.” The Idaho Falls chief of staff responded that the problem was that Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center was out of medication and credited the city with calling to fix it.

In Tacoma, members of the Queer City Collective, a group of LGBTQ city employees were frustrated that the city posted a National Coming Out Day post on Facebook against their express will. A previous post during Pride Month had sparked “hateful comments,” one employee said, and free speech rules meant the city was legally restricted from moderating them.

Portland Chief of Staff Bobby Lee sent a text message that “living conditions in downtown Portland are declining.” He also texted the county’s workplace safety director about his report that the Portland mayor’s car had been “secured” outside the Multnomah County Behavioral Health Resource Center in downtown.

Vancouver Mayor Anna McEnerny-Ogle on the return flight responded to reports that the county public health officer was cracking down on food donated to homeless shelters. McEnerny worried that requiring food donated to be cooked in a commercial kitchen would devastate food programs, while the health officer worried that homeless people were particularly vulnerable to foodborne illness. They found a middle ground: Commercial kitchens would not be required, but permits for volunteer cooks to handle food would be strongly encouraged.

There were a few moments of nitty-gritty. The mayor of Hillsboro spent part of the League of Oregon Cities conference in which she hurled insults at other cities and mocked another mayor’s speech in text messages to a Hillsboro councilman, adding, “I’m so happy I’m at the lectern so he can’t see me texting.”

Finally, there were a few moments in the records — amid emails from angry voters and exhausted workers — where city leaders hear sincere praise.

Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper left a voicemail expressing her deep gratitude to the city for finally installing an audible crosswalk — a device that allows blind people to cross safely — that she has been asking for for years.

“My husband died in May. Without this, I would be completely housebound,” the woman said. “It took three mayors to do this, and you’re the first one to jump in.”

We have published all the records we have received Here.

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Explore the West (invw.org) is an independent, nonprofit organization that provides investigative journalism in the Pacific Northwest. Report for America staff writer Daniel Walters covers democracy and extremism across the region. He can be reached at [email protected].