STARBUCK — Spokane attorney Stephen Kirby says he mailed a request for public records that was ignored more than a year ago.
Part-time Clerk Candice Harrison says the request never arrived.
Now the town of Starbuck, with an annual budget under $300,000, may be facing tens of thousands of dollars in penalties under a lawsuit filed in Columbia County last June.
Michael Whipple, Kirby’s attorney, says his client’s request for “electronic copies of all invoices the city has received for legal services by private firms between December 2013 and the present” was legitimate.
Kirby sent the same request to various government bodies across the state, including the city of Walla Walla and Walla Walla County, according to their records.
Attorneys are sometimes awarded fees in court cases, he said, but no database currently exists for judges or attorneys to access and determine what an appropriate fee would be, Whipple said.
