PORT ANGELES — Selinda Barkhuis will fulfill a public records request that triggered a recent lawsuit, the Clallam County treasurer said Monday.
County commissioners authorized Barkhuis to supply emails from her work and personal accounts on behalf of the county to fulfil a public records request from the Peninsula Daily News.
The Nov. 25 request was to the county itself, not the treasurer.
“I think I’m already ‘the county’ or a significant part of it,” Barkhuis said in the commissioners’ work session Monday.
“But I do appreciate the board acknowledging that I have that authority.”
Barkhuis told commissioners Mike Chapman, Mark Ozias and Bill Peach that she would provide the emails under protest.
“There’s absolutely nothing in there that I’m hiding,” Barkhuis added.
“And so I will supply all of them, make them all available with a declaration that explains why I believe I don’t have to do that. I actually think the emails could be used as a talking point.”
Barkhuis said she would provide the materials by April 19.
‘Political speech’
“The reason I use my personal email for some of these emails is because I consider them to be political speech and political activity, which is specifically prohibited to occur from county equipment,” Barkhuis told the board.
“And so it sort of pits freedom of political speech against the Public Records Act.”
Clallam County filed a complaint for declaratory relief and petition for writ of mandamus against Barkhuis on March 31.
The civil action, which also named the PDN, asked a judge to determine whether the county had complied with the Public Records Act in light of Barkhuis’ then-refusal to release the emails.
If a judge found that the county could not comply with the transparency law, a writ of mandamus may have compelled Barkhuis to release the emails.
After Barkhuis objected to the lawsuit in an April 4 work session, commissioners asked a Superior Court judge to dismiss the case.
The complaint was dismissed the next day with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled in court.
Meetings held
With legal action off the table, Ozias mediated several closed-door meetings with Barkhuis and Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols to resolve the public records compliance issue.
“The basic path that we’re taking to address the Peninsula Daily News’ public records request is to ask the treasurer, Ms. Barkhuis, to provide the response for the county,” Ozias said. “That’s something that she has agreed to do.”
Media inquiries are to be handled by county officials, County Administrator Jim Jones said.
County policy designates county officials as elected officeholders and department heads.
“We don’t have anything — although we’ve been working on it trying to clean this up — we don’t have anything [in policy] designating anybody as a specific public records officer,” Jones said.
‘Positive path’
Ozias said the county takes public records requests seriously.
“We are taking this request seriously despite the challenge in getting to where we’re at now,” Ozias said. “But I think we’re on a positive path forward.”
Barkhuis offered to host an open public meeting to discuss her response to the public records request.
“The prosecuting attorney was in favor of that,” Ozias said. “It’s an open public process to all involved.”
Nichols said the county would benefit by revisiting its policies and approach to public records.
Barkhuis said the pending request was “not the big issue.”
“I appreciate we’re on a path forward on this specific issue, but I have significant other concerns about how this all came about,” Barkhuis said of the lawsuit, which was not discussed in an open session or posted to any agenda.
“I frankly live on the fear every single day that something is going to happen again that I’m not aware of. It’s caused an incredible amount of stress, and I’m still under a lot of stress because I don’t know what might happen to me next.”
Independent lawyer
Barkhuis told commissioners that she needed an independent lawyer because the attorney-client relationship between her and Nichols had been “irrevocably erased.”
“Once you sue your client, that’s pretty much the end of any attorney-client relationship,” said Barkhuis, an attorney licensed to practice in Washington state.
“So that’s another thing we need to discuss. I’m sitting out here and I feel very vulnerable, very vulnerable to what may happen to me next and how I’m going to defend against it.”
When Barkhuis complained about the lawsuit last week, Ozias and Chapman expressed surprise that the action had been filed.
“The practical effect of last Monday was that myself and deputies who worked on this were effectively hucked under the bus in public, and that was undeserved, frankly,” Nichols said.
Ozias apologized to Nichols and civil deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Kristina Nelson-Gross and Brian Wendt for “words or actions that may have put you and your team in that unenviable position.”
The case had been discussed in a closed-door executive session, Ozias said.
“When you think about a situation like that, it’s easy to see how things that may be left unsaid or open to interpretation can cause problems,” Ozias said. “And I think that that’s what happened this time.”
Peach and Chapman thanked Barkhuis, Nichols and Ozias for working toward a solution to the public records request.
“Job well done on behalf of the taxpayers,” Chapman said.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
