Joshua Freed e-mail with Sound Cities Association since 2016-09-01

Phil Mocek filed this request with the Sound Cities Association of King County, WA.

It is a clone of this request.

Est. Completion None
Status
Fix Required

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: Phil Mocek

Dear Sir or Madam:

I noticed that I made a mistake in drafting the PRA request I e-mailed to you a few minutes ago. Where I wrote, "your city's mayor and/or city manager," I intended to write, "your organization's staff." I have requested similar records form a variety of cities, but I understand that SCA has no mayor or city manager and see that you report not to hold any records on behalf of member cities.

I apologize for any confusion.

Cordially,
Phil Mocek

From: Sound Cities Association

Mr. Mocek-

Thank you for that clarification. We are in the process of conducting a search.

Thank you,
Deanna

Deanna Dawson
Executive Director, Sound Cities Association

From: Sound Cities Association

Mr. Mocek-

In follow-up to your message below, Sound Cities Association has received and is processing your public records request submitted on March 23, 2018.

Your email below references a prior September 14, 2017 request. We did not receive a public records request from you on September 14, 2017. We did, however, receive correspondence from you on that date, requesting information about a workshop. Our staff responded to you on September 15, 2017.

In any event, as noted in the email sent to you earlier today, Sound Cities Association is processing your March 23, 2018 request (which appears to be identical to the request referenced below), and estimates that it will have responsive records to you by the end of this week.

Thank you,
Deanna Dawson

From: Sound Cities Association

Mr. Mocek:

We have completed our review.

Our staff have not received any email correspondence from former Councilmember Freed since September 1, 2016.

The only correspondence sent from our staff to former Councilmember Freed since September 1, 2016 were emails sent to all councilmembers of all SCA member cities on which he was cc'd. None address the subject matter discussed below.

Please let me know if you would like to receive copies of those emails.

Thank you,
Deanna

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