Applications for Seattle Community Police Commission

To whom It may concern:

Pursuant to RCW Ch. 42.56 (Public Records Act), I hereby request the following records:

All applications for Seattle's Community Police Commission, creation of which was announced by Mayor Michael McGinn in July, 2012, as part of the settlement agreement and memorandum of understanding entered into by the United States Department of Justice and City of Seattle.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, 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.

I ask that any redactions be "blacked out" rather than "whited out".

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within five business days, as the Washington Public Records Act requires.

Sincerely,

Phil Mocek

## Request for documentation of fee demanded for scanning records ##

Dear Sir or Madam:

On December 13, 2012, Naomi Hillyard, Public Disclosure Officer for the Mayor's Office of the City of Seattle wrote, "Please send me a check made to City of Seattle for $15.60 for a hard copy of the records or $10.40 for a scanned, electronic copy."

Please provide documentation of how the charge for providing these records in electronic form was calculated.

Cordially,
Phil Mocek

RE: My records request of November 28, 2012

Dear Sir or Madam:

On February 14, 2013, in response to my February 12, 2013, request for "documentation of how the charge for providing these records in electronic form was calculated," Naomi Hillyard wrote, "There is no documentation related to this. I just calculated the total by taking the number of pages and multiplied it by 10 and 15 cents depending on whether you wanted them scanned or copied."

The Public Records Act, in [RCW 42.56.120][1], allows public agencies to charge a fee for copying records. It stipulates that "[i]n no event may an agency charge a per page cost greater than the actual per page cost as established and published by the agency." I doubt that the actual cost of dropping a stack of papers into a high-speed scanner is ten cents per page. I note that a typical retail copy shop in the Seattle area charges only 80% of that fee to not only drop the originals into a machine, but also to print and provide hard copies. So, I request documentation of the method by which you arrived at your proposed fee of ten cents per page for digitizing these paper records.

[1]: <http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=42.56.120>

Alternatively, I am willing to forgo review of such documentation and pay the document scanning fee described in section 7.4 of the ["Public Disclosure Policies & Guidelines for Executive Branch" memo signed November 2, 2009, by Mayor Gregory J. Nickels][2], which states, "When electronic files are burned onto a CD, the requestor may be charged $1.00 per CD. When standard 8 1/2 x 11 records are scanned from paper to .PDF, the requestor may be charged .10 cents per page." Under that fee structure, the scanning of 104 pages would incur a fee of 10.4 cents, plus one dollar for a CDROM if, by chance, the resultant files are too large to e-mail.

[2]: <https://muckrock.s3.amazonaws.com/foia_files/Public_Rule_-_PDR_11-04-09.pdf>

Cordially,
Phil Mocek

RE: My records request of November 28, 2012

Dear Sir or Madam:

On March 1, 2013, EXECPDR wrote, "We have already sent you a copy of the 2009 Executive Public Rule." Thank you. On February 15, I wrote to you that I am willing to pay the fee described in that rule (["Public Disclosure Policies & Guidelines for Executive Branch" memo signed November 2, 2009, by Mayor Gregory J. Nickels][1]), which is $1 per CDROM plus one tenth of one cent per page. I remain willing to pay that fee.

[1]: <https://muckrock.s3.amazonaws.com/foia_files/Public_Rule_-_PDR_11-04-09.pdf>

EXECPDR also wrote, "This office considers your request closed."

I appeal.

Cordially,
Phil Mocek