Graffiti Nuisance Notices
| Tracking # |
C192645-080824 |
| Submitted | Aug. 8, 2024 |
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Communications
From: Rose Terse
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Washington Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
A recent KUOW story discusses several business owners receiving a mailed graffiti nuisance notice from Marcy Sanders: https://www.kuow.org/stories/graffiti-was-carved-into-their-windows-the-city-wants-these-seattle-bars-to-fix-it-or-pay-up
Please provide all graffiti nuisance notices issued by the city within the past 5 years.
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,
Rose Terse
From: Seattle Public Utilities
Dear Rose Terse,
Welcome to the City of Seattle Public Records Request Center (PRRC). Your request was received on August 08, 2024 and is appended below.
The reference number for this request is C192645-080824. You will see this number in the title of any communications about this request.
You will hear from a Public Disclosure Officer within five business days regarding the status of your request.
Please visit the City of Seattle Public Records Request Center where you can manage your profile and access your request. Your login ID is: requests@muckrock.com
If a Public Disclosure Officer submitted your public disclosure request into the PRRC on your behalf, please login and complete your new user account by following these steps:
* Access the Public Records Request Center
* Select 'Forgot my Password'
* Enter your 'Login ID' (email address)
* A temporary password will be sent to you via email
* Login with the temporary password
You may now visit the PRRC 'My Records Request Center' anytime!
Request C192645-080824:
" To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Washington Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
A recent KUOW story discusses several business owners receiving a mailed graffiti nuisance notice from Marcy Sanders: https://www.kuow.org/stories/graffiti-was-carved-into-their-windows-the-city-wants-these-seattle-bars-to-fix-it-or-pay-up
Please provide all graffiti nuisance notices issued by the city within the past 5 years.
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,
Rose Terse
Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/
From: Seattle Public Utilities
--- Please respond above this line ---
Dear Rose Terse:
This acknowledges your public disclosure request C192645-080824 received on August 8, 2024 for the following: A recent KUOW story discusses several business owners receiving a mailed graffiti nuisance notice from Marcy Sanders: https://www.kuow.org/stories/graffiti-was-carved-into-their-windows-the-city-wants-these-seattle-bars-to-fix-it-or-pay-up
Please provide all graffiti nuisance notices issued by the city within the past 5 years.
We will process your request and expect to provide an installment of documents within 30 days.
Sincerely,
J. Norman Dizon
Public Disclosure Officer
Seattle Public Utilities
206-733-9836
From: Seattle Public Utilities
--- Please respond above this line ---
Dear Rose Terse:
This concerns your request C192645-080824 for graffiti-nuisance notices issued by the City Seattle.
We have generated a list of property owners and their addresses to whom we have sent notices. We will also provide you with the sample letters used.
Washington state law prohibits the use of individuals’ names for commercial purposes (RCW 42.56.070[8]). You will need to complete and sign a Declaration of Noncommercial Use so that we may evaluate your request. I have uploaded the form to your request account under the Attachments tab.
Please upload or mail a copy of the the declaration by September 9, 2024. If we do not receive a copy by then, we will consider your request cancelled. The Public Records Act’s one-year statute of limitations to seek judicial review of our response will begin to run as of that date.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
J. Norman Dizon
Public Disclosure Officer
Seattle Public Utilities
206-733-9836
From: Rose Terse
Hello Norman,
Respectfully, I decline to sign your affidavit. While I will not be using these records for commercial purposes as stated in my initial request, I requested copies of notices issued by the City and did not request a list of names. Your interpretation led you to creating a list of names presumably because the original records are not available. Following how you interpret RCW 42.56.070 to apply to my request for City-issued notices, I would expect all public records requests that yield records containing multiple names to be subject to this law. If I were to ask for emails sent by the Mayor's Office (which I have many times without being required to sign an affidavit), you would argue that because multiple senders and recipients appear in the records, I must sign your affidavit. May I remind you that the PRA is to be "liberally construed and its exemptions narrowly construed".
Additionally, the law you cite (RCW 42.56.070(8)) only applies to "lists of individuals". As seen depicted in this article, the letter is addressed to "Fortuna Sequitur LLC" which is the entity that runs the Bait Shop business. Nowhere in this letter do I see the name of any individual listed, so I do not see why the list you are creating would be deemed "a list of individuals".
https://www.kuow.org/stories/graffiti-was-carved-into-their-windows-the-city-wants-these-seattle-bars-to-fix-it-or-pay-up
I respectfully ask that I be provided the full breadth of requested information, as is my right under the PRA.
Thank you,
Rose
From: Seattle Public Utilities
--- Please respond above this line ---
Dear Rose:
Thank you for replying to our request to declare noncommercial use of a list of individuals who have received graffiti nuisance notices from Seattle Public Utilities. We accept your statements, in lieu of the signed declaration, and will supply you with responsive data.
It is through reports and lists in electronic form that we document and track nuisance notices, instead of individual letters. The list you will receive includes both business and individuals' (nonbusiness) names. It is for the latter information, coupled with associated residential addresses, that SPU is obligated, under RCW 42.56.070(8), to inquire about and investigate further.
Please expect a message to follow soon releasing the data.
Sincerely,
J. Norman Dizon
Public Disclosure Officer
Seattle Public Utilities
206-733-9836
From: Rose Terse
To Whom It May Concern:
Please find enclosed a check for $1.25 to satisfy the fee associated with the attached public records request.
Thank you.
Seattle Public Utilities
Public Disclosure Officer
P.O. Box 34018
Seattle, WA 98124-4018
From: Seattle Public Utilities
--- Please respond above this line ---
Dear Rose: Records in response to your request C192645-080824 are now available. To download:
* Navigate to the Public Records Request Center
* Select My Records Request Center.
* Select View My Requests. Log on if asked.
* Select C192645-080824.
* Select View Files.
* Click on the file link and save to your PC. Extract contents of the compressed (ZIP) file.
Files will be available online for 30 days.
Data and documents were supplied by SPU's Clean City Division and the City Department of Finance and Administrative Services which administers the online customer service request system. Notices before 2021 have not been retained in the system.
This completes and closes your request. If you have follow-up questions or would like to appeal this response, please contact me within 14 days. The Public Records Act’s one-year statute of limitations to seek judicial review of our response begins to run as of this date. Please contact me with any questions. Sincerely, J. Norman Dizon Public Disclosure Officer Seattle Public Utilities
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C192645
From: Rose Terse
Hi Norman,
Would it be possible to get the dates each of these notices were mailed out?
Thank you,
Rose
From: Seattle Public Utilities
--- Please respond above this line ---
Dear Rose:
I am in contact with the Clean City program manager about your follow-up request for dates when the nuisance notices were sent. Dates are certainly key information about the letters and should have been included. Unfortunately, the program manager is away all week. I will reconnect with him when he is back next week.
Sincerely,
J. Norman Dizon
Public Disclosure Officer
Seattle Public Utilities
206-733-9836
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm following up on the following Washington Public Records Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 8, 2024. You had previously indicated that it would be completed on Sept. 9, 2024. I wanted to check on the status of my request, and to see if there was a new estimated completion date. You had assigned it reference number #C192645-080824.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Seattle Public Utilities
--- Please respond above this line ---
Dear Rose:
We have redone the query of graffiti nuisance notices from our customer service system to include dates of the notices. The data is available for you to download.
According to the system administrators, the actual date on the letter, i.e. when it was printed, is not captured in the system per se, only the date the printing task is completed. The latter is the date that is documented on the redone sheet, which is likely very close to, if not the same, date when the letter was mailed.
I also asked the data administrators to include other data points that appeared on the letter, such as the description of the graffiti, which was not on the first sheet.
This completes and closes your request. If you have follow-up questions or would like to appeal this response, please contact me within 14 days. The Public Records Act’s one-year statute of limitations to seek judicial review of our response begins to run as of this date.
Sincerely,
J. Norman Dizon
Public Disclosure Officer
Seattle Public Utilities
206-733-9836
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C192645_redo