PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County has expressed interest in acquiring a free software program to track public disclosure requests but first must resolve a licensing question brought up during a public comment period Tuesday.
The program developed by the city of Lakewood automatically manages the legal process followed by public entities handling public disclosure requests.
It sends out automatic acknowledgements of these requests and then routes them to the proper department, which then attaches the documents and sends them to administrators for necessary redaction, said Lakewood City Clerk Alice Bush, who helped develop the program.
It took several months to develop and has been in use for around two years.
The program was demonstrated at two conferences this spring, and about 30 public entities, including Jefferson County, have expressed interest, Bush said.
“We are offering the program to other municipalities because we are all in the same boat when it comes to public disclosure requests,” she said.
Jefferson County fulfilled 442 public disclosure requests in 2010 and has handled 175 public disclosure requests in 2011 so far, said Lorna Delaney, board clerk.
The license was slated for approval as part of Tuesday’s consent agenda of the Board of County Commissioner, but was questioned by Jefferson County resident Tom Thiersch.
Thiersch said the portion of the license that controlled the computer code could become part of the disclosure request and that Lakewood had no right to impose use requirements on the program.
The item was pulled from the agenda and will be addressed at a meeting of the three county commissioners at 9 a.m. Monday at the Jefferson County Courthouse, 1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend.
“This should never have been on the consent agenda,” Thiersch said.
County Administrator Philip Morley said, “The license as written may be overly broad, so we need to examine it further and bring it up for discussion at the next meeting.”
The license portion that Thiersch mentioned is standard for software programs, stating that the program contains “proprietary information” that the “customer shall not use, disclose, display, license or otherwise make available” to any third party.
In other words, the program’s code cannot be used or rewritten for another purpose.
Lakewood City Attorney Heidi Wachter said the license was not meant to restrict use of the program, only to ensure that it worked properly.
“People can use the program any way they want, but if they change the code, there is no guarantee that it will work the way that it’s supposed to,” she said.
“We are offering the program for free, and if someone wants to use it without the license, that’s OK with us.”
Thiersch has said that if the program is accepted with the licensing agreement intact, he would file a disclosure request for the program’s code.
Wachter said she would not obstruct any such request.
“Anyone can file a public disclosure request for the code,” she said.
“They always could.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
