Invoices, work orders, installation plans, wiring diagrams for public utility poles 1311440 and 1307407 (SDOT)
| Submitted | Oct. 15, 2015 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Phil Mocek
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to RCW Ch. 42.56 (Public Records Act), I hereby request the following records:
Invoices, work orders, installation plans, and wiring diagrams for utility poles 1311440 and 1307407 dated January 1, 2010, or later.
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 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.
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: Pennie, Charice
October 19, 2015
MuckRock
DEPT MR 21829
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819
requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>
SENT VIA EMAIL
Dear Mr. Mocek:
This is in response to your recent public disclosure request for Seattle Department of Transportation documents related to utility poles.
SDOT Street Use does issue permits for installation and removal, as well as a number of other scopes of work involving attachments to utility poles in the right of way. However, SDOT does not track permits by Seattle City Light pole numbers-Seattle City Light owns that information. In some cases poles are jointly owned by Century Link, and in some cases poles are owned by SDOT or King County.
In the event that you need information about the permitted work of installing or maintaining a pole, we would need to start with a bare minimum of the nearest street address and most helpful would be a permit number.
I have spoken with and forwarded your request to City Light as our records are not maintained in a manner to respond to your request. City Light will be responding to you directly with their response, as they maintain the pole information you have requested.
Sincerely,
Charice Pennie
Public Disclosure Coordinator
SDOT Web page: http://www.cityofseattle.net/transportation
Blog: http://sdotblog.seattle.gov
Twitter: http://twitter.com/seattledot
Public Disclosure/Disclaimer Statement:
Consistent with the Public Records Act, Chapter 42.56 RCW, all records within the possession of the City may be subject to a public disclosure request and may be distributed or copied, barring certain exemptions. Records include and are not limited to sign-in sheets, contracts, emails, notes, correspondence, etc. Use of lists of individuals or directory information (including address, phone or E-mail) may not be used for commercial purposes.
From: Phil Mocek
Dear Ms. Charice:
I received your e-mail of October 19. In it, you stated that Seattle Department of Transportation ("SDOT") do index records related to utility poles by the identifying number affixed to those poles. I sympathize with the position you are in. Providing public access to public records about these poles is likely made quite difficult by this deficiency in your agency's accounting practices.
You also stated that you forwarded my request to Seattle City Light ("SCL"). I originally requested these records from SCL. Their representative told me that they do not own the poles, and referred me to the poles' owners, Washington Department of Transportation ("WSDOT") and King County Metro ("Metro"). WSDOT said that *they* do not own the poles, informing me that one of the poles is owned by Metro that the other is owned by the City of Seattle and is used for a traffic signal.
Following describes the above in greater detail:
On August 24 of this year, I [requested of SCL][1] the same records I requested of your agency on October 15. On September 8, Stacy Irwin at SCL replied, "doing some further research, we have determined Seattle City Light does not have any records responsive to your request below. Pole No. 1311440 is owned by WSDOT and the other pole is owned by King County Metro Transit. You may want to reach out to them for responsive records."
So, taking her advice, on September 15, I filed additional identical requests, this time [with WDOT][2] and [with Metro][3]. Metro estimated that it would take several weeks to complete the request.
On October 13, Robert Lee at WSDOT quoted an unspecified colleague as having written, "We at signal maintenance have looked in to the poles in question and as Jon Cornelius relayed to you earlier, the one pole belongs to King County Metro. We determined that the other pole belongs to the City of Seattle as this is their traffic signal. The controller cabinet is on the northeast corner tucked away under the structure. This was a bit difficult to determine at first because the numbers given (with no address) belong to Seattle City Light's grid system of numbering and we have no data base with these numbers to reference."
This led to me filing my fourth identical request, this time with SDOT, since I assume that traffic signals are maintained by the transportation department.. Now, I find SDOT referring back to SCL. I look forward to hearing what you learn from them.
References:
[1]: <https://www.muckrock.com/foi/seattle-69/invoices-work-orders-installation-plans-wiring-diagrams-for-public-utility-poles-1311440-and-1307407-20802/>
[2]: <https://www.muckrock.com/foi/washington-54/invoices-work-orders-installation-plans-wiring-diagrams-for-public-utility-poles-1311440-and-1307407-wsdot-21280/>
[3]: <https://www.muckrock.com/foi/king-county-73/invoices-work-orders-installation-plans-wiring-diagrams-for-public-utility-poles-1311440-and-1307407-king-county-metro-21281/>
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 15, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Pennie, Charice
My response from October 19th has been provided again, and despite your statement below, SDOT has responded to your request and stated what information was needed in order to provide records, which to this date has not been provided by requestor.
October 19, 2015
MuckRock
DEPT MR 21829
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819
requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com%3cmailto:requests@muckrock.com>>
SENT VIA EMAIL
Dear Mr. Mocek:
This is in response to your recent public disclosure request for Seattle Department of Transportation documents related to utility poles.
SDOT Street Use does issue permits for installation and removal, as well as a number of other scopes of work involving attachments to utility poles in the right of way. However, SDOT does not track permits by Seattle City Light pole numbers-Seattle City Light owns that information. In some cases poles are jointly owned by Century Link, and in some cases poles are owned by SDOT or King County.
In the event that you need information about the permitted work of installing or maintaining a pole, we would need to start with a bare minimum of the nearest street address and most helpful would be a permit number.
I have spoken with and forwarded your request to City Light as our records are not maintained in a manner to respond to your request. City Light will be responding to you directly with their response, as they maintain the pole information you have requested.
Sincerely,
Charice Pennie
Public Disclosure Coordinator
SDOT Web page: http://www.cityofseattle.net/transportation
Blog: http://sdotblog.seattle.gov
Twitter: http://twitter.com/seattledot
Public Disclosure/Disclaimer Statement:
Consistent with the Public Records Act, Chapter 42.56 RCW, all records within the possession of the City may be subject to a public disclosure request and may be distributed or copied, barring certain exemptions. Records include and are not limited to sign-in sheets, contracts, emails, notes, correspondence, etc. Use of lists of individuals or directory information (including address, phone or E-mail) may not be used for commercial purposes.
Charice Pennie
Public Disclosure Coordinator
SDOT Web page: http://www.cityofseattle.net/transportation
Blog: http://sdotblog.seattle.gov
Twitter: http://twitter.com/seattledot
Public Disclosure/Disclaimer Statement:
Consistent with the Public Records Act, Chapter 42.56 RCW, all records within the possession of the City may be subject to a public disclosure request and may be distributed or copied, barring certain exemptions. Records include and are not limited to sign-in sheets, contracts, emails, notes, correspondence, etc. Use of lists of individuals or directory information (including address, phone or E-mail) may not be used for commercial purposes.
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From: Phil Mocek
Dear Ms. Pennie:
I requested invoices, work orders, installation plans, and wiring diagrams for utility poles 1311440 and 1307407 dated January 1, 2010, or later. I provided serial numbers from the poles. I do not know the locations of your poles. Presumably you or your colleagues know the locations of your poles. If one wished to locate poles, 1311440 and 1307407, presumably one would request records from the agency or agencies that owns or own the poles.
I do not understand your response. Are you telling me that such records do not exist? Are you telling me that you refuse to search for such records? Does your agency own poles to which plates bearing serial numbers 1311440 or 1307407 are affixed or not?
I am getting the run-around from every agency I queried about these poles: yours (Seattle Department of Transportation), Seattle City Light, King County Metro, and Washington State Department of Transportation. It appears that everyone involved is trying to hide from the public plans by public staff to conspire with ATF to covertly install surveillance cameras in violation of Seattle ordinance 124142, which prohibits the acquisition and use of such equipment without approval by City Council. It seems that you are operating in bad faith in order to obscure from the public actions by public staff that the public will find unacceptable.
Cordially,
Phil Mocek
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 15, 2015. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Pennie, Charice
October 19, 2015
MuckRock
DEPT MR 21829
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819
requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com%3cmailto:requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com%3cmailto:requests@muckrock.com%3cmailto:requests@muckrock.com%3cmailto:requests@muckrock.com>>>
SENT VIA EMAIL
Dear Mr. Mocek:
This is in response to your recent public disclosure request for Seattle Department of Transportation documents related to utility poles.
SDOT Street Use does issue permits for installation and removal, as well as a number of other scopes of work involving attachments to utility poles in the right of way. However, SDOT does not track permits by Seattle City Light pole numbers-Seattle City Light owns that information. In some cases poles are jointly owned by Century Link, and in some cases poles are owned by SDOT or King County.
In the event that you need information about the permitted work of installing or maintaining a pole, we would need to start with a bare minimum of the nearest street address and most helpful would be a permit number. (SDOT records are maintained by location. SDOT does not track poles using pole numbers nor do we (SDOT) maintain records to identify poles by pole numbers. If you are requesting SDOT records you will need to provide SDOT with the location, ie address, cross street etc, project name, of the records you are seeking in order for SDOT to search our records.) The Public Disclosure Act states records must be identifiable, and SDOT cannot identify records using utility pole numbers as our records are not maintained in this manner. If you would like to clarify your request by providing the addresses/locations of the records you are seeking and re-submitting your request with identifying information needed please feel free to do so. As these are City Light pole numbers City Light may be able to provide you with records identifying the location of the requested pole numbers. Without necessary identifying information SDOT has no identifiable records responsive to your request.
I have spoken with and forwarded your request to City Light as our records are not maintained in a manner to respond to your request. City Light will be responding to you directly with their response, as they maintain the pole information you have requested.
SDOT has no identifiable records responsive to your request.
If you would like to contact the City of Seattle Law Dept for Public Disclosure please feel free to do so, a link with contact information has been provided.
http://www.seattle.gov/cityattorney
SDOT has no identifiable records responsive to your request.
Charice Pennie
Public Disclosure Coordinator
SDOT Web page: http://www.cityofseattle.net/transportation
Blog: http://sdotblog.seattle.gov
Twitter: http://twitter.com/seattledot
Public Disclosure/Disclaimer Statement:
Consistent with the Public Records Act, Chapter 42.56 RCW, all records within the possession of the City may be subject to a public disclosure request and may be distributed or copied, barring certain exemptions. Records include and are not limited to sign-in sheets, contracts, emails, notes, correspondence, etc. Use of lists of individuals or directory information (including address, phone or E-mail) may not be used for commercial purposes.