State Law For Public Records Disclosure

The HPRP program is federal, but if Community Action is getting directives from the State, that information is State-based and then goes by state law not federal even if the program is originally coming from a federal source.

Washington State Public Records Request RCW 42.56.

This is the law to cite when making a request to a state controlled or governed program or agency.

If you want information about HUD, or HPRP and the federal government guidelines, that would be a federal disclosure an it would show what kind of funds are allowed and granted to states.

However, once that money changes from federal hands to state hands, the state is responsible for keeping within the guidelines and disseminating any information they are using to direct others about how the money is used.

So, Linda claimed they cannot use money for a hotel. This isn't true, if you look at federal provisions for HPRP. And if a State is receiving monies from a federal sources and not using that grant money in keeping with the objectives, the State is subject to penalties.

With HPRP, the states have flexibility in how they use the money, but it cannot contradict the goals and intentions of the federal government. It's not state money, given to states, to use and design however they want. It is federal money, given to states, to be used in keeping with federal objectives.

Community Action is an agency that applied for this money and they are a local, city-run organization. A variety of organizations can or could have applied for the HPRP money and they don't have to be government agencies per se.

If you're listening Linda, I'm reading you your rights.

If an organization applies for the money, they have some flexibility in how they use the money, but it has to be in keeping with both state and federal guidelines.

I asked Linda for that information she said she had and she told me she had this information and now claims she can refuse to give any information to me, even though this is public money intended for public use, for which the public has the right to supervise.

Making a request is worth nothing if it's not documented and backed up with a law. I could send email to Linda all day and get nothing and because I haven't cited a law and made a formal request, pursuant to that law, I can ask and ask until I'm blue in the face.

You have to put the request in writing and use the appropriate law as their "reminder" and then keep copies.

Some people will mail a request and send it certified, to prove it was received. That doesn't prove what was received though. It only proves some document was received. So if you have your request notorized, for free at your bank, you have documentation that someone has witnessed the contents of your request and then you can mail it certified and prove that it was received and signed for. If you don't want to mail it, you could try to go in person and ask them to stamp it and then you have proof it someone took your request.

If you're a lawyer, most agencies and courts will take you at your word as to what you mailed and the notary isn't really necessary. But if you are a regular citizen who may be fighting an uphill battle to prove exactly what is going on, it is best to get something notorized and then stamped or certified.

You are not filing anything for court. So you're not making the record there. But you are building evidence for a potential case and in giving notice to an agency or persons that you are carefully collecting evidence, they are on notice that they have a choice to either "behave" or potentially be sued.

Maybe what Linda says is true and maybe it's no violation. If that's the case, you want to see it in writing for yourself, especially when a worker has repeatedly lied or distorted what the truth is. If you got false or incorrect information the first time, and they refuse to give you the documentation you request, you have no way of checking up on them to see if it's true.

It's funny how stories change. I was under the impression HPRP was for only 6 months and provided only $500-$600/mo. until I started asking hard questions about where I could find federal information. After I found the site and mentioned this to my lawyer, all of a sudden, WOW! the program is actually for 18 months and there is no cap to the amount of money used.

The story changed.

So either someone was lying, or someone was misinformed about their own program.

So as a citizen who may not be getting the whole truth, you have the right to check on what they doing with this public money and how it is really supposed to be used.

And this right to public information and public disclosure is the same for all programs, whether it's HPRP or not. If it's not private money, it's your business, as a matter of law.

This is the link for the webpage which explains the law on the site for Washington State Laws, so you can review details of what the public records disclosure law covers: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/Rcw/default.aspx?cite=42.56

It may be that since Linda told me she had an intergovernmental email (an email between two parties even if her agency is not strictly government--interagency is probably a better term), this email is excluded from public disclosure. However, if she is claiming that she is following orders from a certain agency, and she told me it was the Chamber of Commerce, then a citizen can request this information from the state agency she claimed was making the rules and one can also make a request to the local agency for what their program design is.

Community Action does not, by law, have a right to withhold the details of their program from the public.

Another note: In making a public records request, if you are not using a form, be sure to include the agency address and contact information as well as your own. This makes it absolutely clear which agency the notice is directed to.

If you get a stamp if you go in in person, be sure to get the signature of the person claiming responsibility for receiving your request so you have a name.

If you mail it certified, you get their name but don't assume a generic stamp is good enough. You need to prove that the document was received by someone who works at the agency.
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This is why the State wants to keep me out of resources and money. Because this is what I know and what I can do off the top of my head, and given a law book and a little money, some people know they are in for a major battle with me. I can do it on my own and I can make the people running this town think twice about messing with me. Wenatchee couldn't even handle me on their own initially. They had to get outside help from some of my former adversaries.

They know what I am capable of, and this is the reason why they don't want me to have even a dime to my name, and to keep me in the most unstable circumstances.

If my enemies are not cowards and worth a fraction of my brainpower all put together, why does it take so many of them and only one of me? You people are all half assed cowards. You don't fight fair because you CAN'T, because you would lose. And you would lose

To a GURL.

Have A Nice Day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCg2BoKiuOM