The survey of the state’s 10 largest cities, counties and government agencies found high levels of overall compliance with public disclosure requests – but some entities gave citizens the runaround, sending them from one department to another.

The City of Seattle was the worst offender in that respect, passing requesters to multiple departments in seven of 10 cases.

The City of Tacoma and Pierce County fared better by the same measure. Tacoma scored 10 out of 10 on “overall responsiveness.” Pierce County scored nine out of 10.

However, Pierce County workers quizzed a person who asked for a copy of the county’s sexual harassment policy. The questions “bordered on the contentious,” according to the report.

“Requestors were asked why they were interested in the policy by the front desk staff at the clerk’s office, and the Human Resources front desk staff and manager,” the report states. “The manager asked additional questions before the policy was provided; where the requestors went to school and what branch of the school they attended.

“Requestors asked why these questions were being asked and were informed the manager needed to know where the policy was going before she could provide it to them.”

Under state law, people seeking public records don’t have to explain why they want them, with limited exceptions. One section of the state public records act notes requestors “shall not be required to provide information as to the purpose for the request.”

Friday, Pierce County officials said the incident reflected a collision of policies.

Human resources staffers, worried that the requester could be a county employee caught in a sexual harassment situation, tried to find out whether help was needed, said Hudson Stansbury, special assistant to the county executive.

“I think it’s a fairly benign situation,” Stansbury said. “It wasn’t a reluctance to release the records. HR (human resources) has placed a great deal of emphasis on training in sexual harassment and domestic violence. They’re trained to respond to these things and ferret them out.”

Stansbury added that the Human Resources Department is an internal agency, less accustomed to dealing with the public than other areas of county government. He said that when the employee asked about the requestor’s schooling, it was intended as friendly conversation rather than interrogation.

“It’s been explained to (the staff member) that when people ask for records, they have to get them as promptly as we can get them to them,” he said.

A recent News Tribune study of public records compliance among 49 local governments (including Tacoma and Pierce County) found that agencies supplied public records 97 percent of the time.

The auditor’s report, using different methods and standards of measurement, found a compliance rate of 87 percent.

The auditor’s office sent staffers posing as ordinary citizens to the agencies being surveyed. The requesters asked for a range of simple documents, including travel policies and vouchers, vacation records for high-ranking employees and a list of the agency’s five highest-paid employees. All governments received the same requests.

E-mailed requests got the quickest response overall (three days). Requests sent by certified mail took the longest (10 days). There were no outright denials.

The report is still in draft form, pending final responses to the auditor’s findings from some of the agencies.

“Our overarching conclusion is that most of the selected entities responded cooperatively and in a timely manner to our public records requests,” the report states.

Sean Robinson: 253-597-8486