Joshua Freed e-mail with mayors/managers since 2016-09-01 (Enumclaw)

Phil Mocek filed this request with the Enumclaw Office of the Mayor of Enumclaw, WA.
Est. Completion Oct. 3, 2017
Status
No Responsive Documents

Communications

From: Phil Mocek

To whom it may concern:

## Background ##

On September 15, 2016, Seattle's, Auburn's, Renton's and King County's [Heroin and Prescription Opiate Addiction Task Force][1] issued a set of [recommendations][2] comprising a strategy for confronting the region's growing heroin and opioid epidemic. The recommendations focused on prevention, increasing access to treatment on demand, and reducing the number of fatal overdoses. Among those recommendations was that a pilot project be initiated with the establishment of two supervised consumption spaces--public health facilities also known by several other names, including community health engagement locations, in which people living with substance use disorder would be allowed to use otherwise-prohibited drugs in a clean environment that provides supervision, medical assistance, and connections to health care and long-term treatment. The task force recommended that for the pilot program, one of these facilities be located in Seattle and the other be located elsewhere in King County. About four months later, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and King County Executive Dow Constantine formally [accepted all recommendations][3] issued by the task force.

[1]: <http://kingcounty.gov/depts/community-human-services/mental-health-substance-abuse/task-forces/heroin-opiates-task-force.aspx>
[2]: <http://kingcounty.gov/elected/executive/constantine/news/release/2016/September/15-heroin-opioid-task-force-report.aspx>
[3]: <http://seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/seattle-king-county-move-to-create-2-injection-sites-for-drug-users/>

On May 11, 2017, a public initiative to ban supervised consumption sites in King County was [announced][4]. Chief sponsor of the proposed initiative (I-27) is Bothell City Council member Joshua Freed. The campaign formed a political action committee called Impaction, and Freed was later [reported][5] as the top donor to the PAC, having contributed $40,000 to it.

[4]: <http://seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/initiative-proposed-to-ban-heroin-safe-injection-sites-in-king-county/>
[5]: <http://seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/injectionsites-signatures/>

In an e-mail dated August 18, 2017, Andy Rheaume, mayor of Bothell, Washington, wrote to Joshua Freed, former mayor and current member of Bothell City Council, reporting that Mr. Freed had previously sent both inaccurate and misleading information about supervised consumption sites to unspecified mayors in multiple King County cities:

> Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2017 04:34:52 +0000
> From Andy Rheaume <Andy.Rheaume@bothellwa.gov>
> To: Joshua Freed <Joshua.Freed@bothellwa.gov>,
> Jennifer Phillips <jennifer.phillips@bothellwa.gov>,
> Tris Samberg <Tris.Samberg@bothellwa.gov>,
> Paul Byrne <Paul.Byrne@bothellwa.gov>
> Subject: Re: Heroin Injection Sites
>
> Josh,
>
> Its completely [inappropriate] for you to dictate to the city manager and the
> mayor when and how agenda items will be scheduled. Please review the council
> protocol manual. In addition, from what I understand from other mayors,
> cities have no need to adopt a ban on injection sites based on the language
> of the king county council ordinance.
>
> The city manager responsibility is to determine what the staff can handle. It
> is not appropriate for an individual council member to direct a city manager,
> and to think its OK to have a council member write an ordinance for council
> consideration.
>
> You sent an email to king county mayors other than me, indicating that the
> Bothell City Council will ban injection sites in September. The Bothell City
> Council has not weighed in on this issue in any way. For this fact alone, you
> do not have my support to have this added to any agenda while you are on
> council.
>
> Andy Rheaume
> Mayor of Bothell

## Request ##

Pursuant to RCW Ch. 42.56 (Public Records Act), I request all e-mail correspondence between Joshua Freed and your city's mayor and/or city manager since September 1, 2016. This should include messages to or from any e-mail address used by Mr. Freed, either public or private (e.g., joshua.freed@ci.bothell.wa.us, joshua.freed@bothellwa.gov, joshuafreed@mac.com, info@impacwa.com, etc.) This should include but not be limited to any of the messages cited by Bothell mayor Andy Rheaume when he wrote of Mr. Freed's messages to various King County mayors that reportedly contained both inaccurate information and misleading information pertaining to plans for supervised drug consumption sites or to the potential banning thereof.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Phil Mocek

From: Maureen Burwell

Phil - I wanted to e-mail you right away and apologize for no response from the City of Enumclaw. Our Mayor (Liz Reynolds) has been on vacation for over two weeks (beginning September 7th) and just returned to the office today and forwarded this to me a few minutes ago. I have read through the request and am meeting with the IT Manager shortly to request that our e-mail archiver be searched for responsive records. I should be able to attach responsive records, if any, to an e-mail. There will be no fees unless there are a great many and you would like the e-mails on a DVD or memory stick. I will inform you well in advance.

I will have the records available on or before Tuesday, October 3, 2017. If you any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Any further correspondence should be directed to me as our Mayor is part time and usually only works part of the day on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Thank you.

Maureen J. Burwell
City Clerk
City of Enumclaw
1339 Griffin Avenue
Enumclaw, WA 98022
360-615-5608

From: Phil Mocek

Dear Ms. Burwell,

I received your e-mailed update of September 25. Thank you for the explanation.

For my and others' future reference, is there a preferable e-mail address to use for matters pertaining to public records held by Enumclaw Office of the Mayor? I'm imagining a mayor@ or records-requests@ address that would be forwarded to the appropriate party at any given time.

Cordially,
Phil Mocek

From: Maureen Burwell

Phil - We are a small municipality so as City Clerk, I handle any requests that the Mayor receives. In the eight years she has been Mayor, there have only been a handful that go directly to her without a copy being sent to me and she has normally gotten those to me in a very timely manner. In this case, it was a combination of her taking an extended vacation...and forgetting to activate her Outlook "out of office". We've talked about a solution to ensure this doesn't happen again. Thanks for your understanding.

Maureen J. Burwell
City Clerk
City of Enumclaw
1339 Griffin Avenue
Enumclaw, WA 98022
360-615-5608

From: Phil Mocek

Dear Ms. Burwell,

You're welcome. Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense. It sounds like I described a solution to a problem you effectively do not have. I frequently deal with larger municipalities and forget that smaller ones get by with what are by comparison skeleton crews.

Cordially,
Phil Mocek

From: Maureen Burwell

There are pros and cons to being a small municipality. One of the pros is that the IT Manager can accommodate the City Clerk's office and prioritize a PRR. Our e-mail archiver was searched for the requested records beginning September 1, 2016 to September 25, 2017. We had about twelve e-mails where both Joshua Freed and our Mayor were recipients (King County staff and SCA were senders), but there are no e-mails either to the Mayor from Joshua Freed or vice versa.

I am closing your Public Records Request at this time as we have no responsive records. If you have any questions or if I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Maureen J. Burwell
City Clerk
City of Enumclaw
1339 Griffin Avenue
Enumclaw, WA 98022
360-615-5608

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