An internal audit of the city’s public-records request (PRR) process found a weighted compliance rate above 93% across the city clerk’s office and the Spokane Police Department, but the auditor recommended updates to policy, technology and organization to improve speed and transparency.
Danielle Arnold, the city’s internal auditor, told the Finance & Administration Committee that the team reviewed five years of requests with a cutoff of Dec. 31, 2024, examining statutory compliance under the state Public Records Act. Arnold said the audit looked at process flow, software and record storage, and interviewed staff in the city clerk’s office and SPD. “I live in the past,” she told the committee, explaining the audit’s historical cutoff.
The nut graf: while state-law timelines were largely met, the audit found that the city’s administrative policy is out of date, record management is decentralized and inconsistent, performance metrics are underused, technology integrations are limited, and staff workloads are increasing without corresponding capacity increases. The auditor recommended updating the city policy to align with current practice and state law, improving records management and data reporting, enhancing training, and considering a reorganized structure to reduce duplication and delay.
Management representatives told the committee they have already started action: City Legal is reviewing internal policy updates, IT has implemented internal tools to expedite reviews and is evaluating AI-assisted redaction, and the project-management office will build a dashboard to track request status. Administration said it reclassified one existing city clerk position to a records specialist in the last biennium and created a new city-clerk position to help meet demand. The administration also plans another audit in about a year to assess implementation.
Council members asked about litigation costs for historic noncompliance and vendor solutions promoted at conferences. Finance committed to researching any recent settlement or judgment costs; Arnold said auditors avoid product endorsements and urged starting with in-house improvements before buying external systems. Members also asked about recommendations in the police ombuds office’s report; administration said they will coordinate across reviews and consider the audit’s reorganization recommendations alongside labor, civil-service and budget implications.