Can we stop kicking records loose at 4:45 on a Friday?

Published 3:16 pm Tuesday, April 5, 2011

It’s called a “dump and run.” It happens when there is bad news and officials want to avoid lots of questions from reporters.

The strategy is to hold tight until close of business, preferably on a Friday. The information then is kicked loose so late in the news day that it becomes difficult,

if not impossible, to find people with answers or reasonable reactions.

Some in government around Snohomish County are adept at this gambit. If we complain, they act pained. After all, they answered our questions or provided the information. Absent other evidence, there is no way to counter their defense that it simply took them all darn day.I recently thought we had solid evidence of a dump and run, facilitated by an attorney hired at public expense, no less.

A little reporting convinced me otherwise. John M. Casey, who represents the Darrington School District, seems a pretty decent guy.

Since October a number of us have been writing about the death of Myra Lewis, a beloved school district administrator. She died after ingesting cocaine. Lewis’ boss, district Superintendent Larry Johnson, was present when she collapsed. An investigation by the sheriff’s department found no evidence he did anything illegal. Johnson was fired, though, after a school district investigation.

Gale Fiege has covered this case for The Herald. To say that she doesn’t relish poking her nose into Darrington’s pain would be understatement. She also knows there is no choice. It is her duty to learn what happened and why the school board took the steps it did.

The Herald on Feb. 10 sought access to the district’s investigation. Attorney Casey, of the Curran Law Firm in Kent, wrote Fiege back that we could expect the records “on or about” Feb. 25.

When the date arrived, Fiege asked for the records. Casey was out of the office. Others at his law firm said we’d get the records that day, but not until 4:45 p.m. We were told Casey had ordered it so, and it wasn’t subject to negotiation.

Just before 5 p.m. we were provided dozens of pages documenting the investigation. It made for a long, long day poring over the reports, tracking down what district leaders we could find and crafting a careful story.

I contacted Casey this month to find out why he’d handled the case in that way. Was it a dump and run?

“Certainly not,” Casey said.

The Friday deadline was to give school district employees named in the report reasonable opportunity to seek a court order blocking release, he said. Privacy is part of the state’s public records law, too. It is routine to give people time to object.

But what was so important about releasing the records no earlier than 4:45 p.m.?

Casey’s reaction was a welcome surprise. Nothing prevented him from picking an earlier hour, he acknowledged. He seemed genuinely interested to view the decision through a journalist’s eyes. Here’s hoping others will consider that perspective, too.