TWN1113 - The Washington Newspaper November 2013

TWN

THE WASHINGTON NEWSPAPER Vol. 98, No. 11 November 2013

AT THE CONVENTION Freedom’s Light and Turnbull wiinners; new WNPA trustees, photos and a word from the tribes.

Coverage begins on PAGE 10

Journal of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association and Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington • www.wnpa.com

Hernandez, Markell lead Daily Record Pioneer News Group, Seattle

S

kagit Publishing President and Publisher Heather Hernandez has added to her job duties by becoming the publisher of the Daily Record in Ellensburg, Pioneer News Group announced.

Joanna Markell was named the Daily Record’s general manager and editor and will oversee day-to-day operations in Ellensburg. The changes take effect Oct. 21.

The new team replaces outgoing publisher Tyler Miller, who is a group publisher for newspapers in Helena and Butte, Mont.

“We’re excited about the leadership combination of Heather and Joanna,” said Mike Gugliotto, president and CEO of Pioneer News Group, owner of the two newspapers.

“They’re both very passionate journalists and advocates of community development and growth. Under their direction, in combination with the efforts of the Daily Record’s staff, the Daily Record will continue to grow as a multimedia company and strong community contributor.”

Markell joined the Daily Record as editor in 2010.

Previously she served as news editor at the Herald and News, a Pioneer daily in Klamath Falls, Ore., and as news director of KRBD Public Radio in Alaska.

She holds a journalism degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Hernandez was named publisher of the Skagit Valley Herald in 2011.

Her career includes serving as advertising director at the Roanoke (Va.) Times and in leadership positions at the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Statesman-Journal in Salem, Ore.

Times picks new top editor Seattle Times

K

athy Best, a longtime Seattle journalist and a Seattle Times editor for six years, has been named the newspaper’s editor, Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen announced Sept. 30.

Best, who most recently has been one of the Times’ two managing editors, begins the new job immediately, Blethen said. She replaces David Boardman, who resigned after 30 years at the Times in

August to become dean of Temple University’s School of Media and Communication in Philadelphia.

Before joining the Seattle Times, Best was the assistant managing editor for Sunday and national news at the Baltimore Sun. She had also been assistant managing editor/metro at the St. Louis Post–Dispatch and at the Seattle Post–Intelligencer.

Blethen also appointed Suki Dardarian, who has been the newspaper’s other managing

editor, to the newly created position of director of audience development and innovation.

She will report directly to the publisher, and indirectly to Alan Fisco, executive vice president for revenue and new products, on ways to build the newspaper’s print and digital audiences.

Blethen said the newspaper’s newsroom leadership team “will continue our remarkable story of stewardship and perseverance (and) lead us the

rest of the way into a vibrant, sustainable 21st-century model for a journalism/public service organization.”

At the announcement, Best told the paper’s news staff that with the uncertain future facing the industry, “all of us in this room need to stay laser-focused on our mission: producing useful, meaningful, kick-ass journalism that readers can’t get anywhere else.”

See TIMES, page 8

A WINNER ON FIRE

Brian Myrick / Daily Record, Ellensburg

For the creative approach and technical skills Brian Myrick applied to this assignment and many others, he was named Photographer of the Year in the 2013 Washington Better Newspaper Contest. ‘Firecamp’ was selected as the 2013 Miles Turnbull Photograph of the Year. ‘Taking a forest fire picture that hasn’t been done before is tough,’ the judges wrote.

Foundation OKs internship stipend hike, adds board member

Yearly auction nets nearly $11,000 for scholarships

A

t the Oct. 4 annual meeting of the WNPA Foundation, the directors approved a 2014 budget that increases the stipend for summer internship scholarships from $1,000 to $1,500 and increases from two to three the number of University of Washington legislative interns it will fund.

The Foundation will offer up to five summer internship scholarships to students in Washington state journalism programs or individuals nominated by WNPA publishers.

Foundation President Scott Wilson, publisher of the Port

Townsend Leader, announced Oct. 10 that Andrea Otanez had joined the board.

A lecturer at University of Washington, Andrea Otanez is the Otanez coordinator of the UW Legislative Reporting Internship program.

Another new director is still to be named.

Enthusiastic support for journalism students

The Foundation netted nearly $11,000 last month at its 2013 auction and during the Better Newspaper Contest Awards

dinner, held at the126th annual convention of Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.

Auction bids ranged from $25 to $1,000 on gift baskets, books, photographs, weekend getaways, sports tickets and a variety of other donated items. Donations of $5,650 were pledged to support the University of Washington’s Legislative Internship Program.

On behalf of Wilson and Auction Chair Josh O’Connor, publisher of Sound Publishing’s Everett Herald, thanks go to all of the donors and bidders for their enthusiastic support of the Foundation auction and journalism students’ education.

See AUCTION, page 10

Committee to handle job of directing, aiding interns

R

ecord donations enabled the WNPA Foundation to fund three University of Washington Legislative Reporting interns to report for members of Washington Newspaper Publishers Association during the 2014 legislative session.

For the past three years, since Frank Garred began working with the University of Washington on this UWFoundation partnership for legislative interns, members have had two interns during each session.

Successors to Garred, who

retired from the program last year after serving for three years as the interns’ editorial mentor Frank in Olympia, Garred and Mike Henderson, the UW program coordinator, have been announced.

To handle Garred’s roles as assigning editor, onsite mentor, solicitor of story ideas from WNPA members and on See INTERNS, page 2

2

NOVEMBER 2013

TWN

A bad open government ruling 14 years in the making

I

wasn’t as shocked as some last week when the state Supreme Court found that governors have a constitutional exemption from disclosing certain documents to the public.

Since I’d been denied records by a former governor who cited executive privilege, a decision backed up by a past attorney general, I assumed there was a strong likelihood the court would side with those who felt executive privilege existed.

What was disturbing though, was the court’s refusal to narrow the privilege that was created by the U.S. Supreme Court in a case involving President Richard Nixon and his attempt to hide recordings made in his office. The release of the Oval Office tapes was the final nail in Nixon’s coffin, politically speaking at least.

One reading of the majority opinion in Freedom Foundation v. Gregoire raises a fear that the court might have made the executive privilege in Washington state broader than anywhere else.

My trip down this path began in 1999 when then-Gov. Gary

Officers: President: Bill Forhan, NCW Media, Leavenworth l First Vice President: Keven Graves, Whidbey News Group, Coupeville l Second Vice President: Lori Maxim, Sound Publishing l Past President: Jana Stoner, Northern Kittitas County Tribune, Cle Elum l Secretary: Bill Will, WNPA, Seattle Trustees: Donna Etchey, Sound Publishing l Eric LaFontaine, Othello Outlook l Imbert Matthee, Waitsburg Times l Don Nelson, Methow Valley News, Twisp l Stephen McFadden, RitzvilleAdams County Journal l Fred Obee, Port Townsend Leader l Michael Wagar, Lafromboise Communications Staff: Executive Director: Bill Will l Editor/Manager of Member Services: Mae Waldron

Officers: President: Rob Blethen, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin Treasurer: Christine Fossett, Chronicle, Centralia Board: Nathan Alford, Moscow-Pullman Daily News l Tyler Miller, Daily Record, Ellensburg l Heather Hernandez, Skagit Valley Herald, Mount Vernon l Dave Zeeck, News Tribune, Tacoma Executive Director: Rowland Thompson THE WASHINGTON NEWSPAPER is the official publication of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. It is published monthly

by WNPA, 12354 30th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98125, phone (206) 6343838. Email: mwaldron@wnpa.com; URL: www.wnpa.com, in conjunction with Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington, P.O. Box 29, Olympia, WA 98507, (360) 943-9960. Email: anewspaper@aol.com.

Locke was complaining that he’d been duped when he signed the law creating what we now know as minicasinos. The law, passed two years earlier, had led Peter to an explosion Callaghan The News of commercial casinos that were Tribune, drawing protests Tacoma across the state and causing politicians to run for cover.

“That legislation was presented to the legislators and to our office as more housekeeping,” Locke said. “It has clearly gone well beyond what anyone ever conceived or thought would happen.”

How was the bill presented to Locke? I asked for the letters, phone messages and other information in his files, especially the staff report on the bill.

That report was released, but with the good stuff blacked out. Locke’s attorney, Everett Billingslea, cited an exemption in the Public Disclosure Act

for internal staff opinions and recommendations plus “all other applicable exemptions and privileges.”

I asked then Attorney General Christine Gregoire to review the denial. I argued that the deliberative process exemption expired once a decision was made, especially if the recommendations were relied upon by the governor.

Executive privilege? State law contained no such privilege.

It wasn’t mentioned in the state constitution and the concept had never been argued before the state Supreme Court. To me it brought to mind the disgraced former president and his assertion that “executive privilege” placed him above the law during the Watergate investigation.

But it was at the heart of the opinion released four months later by Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Lane, who concluded that Locke was legally allowed to black out much of the staff report. The courts would likely find that a governor, like the president, needed candid advice from staff, Lane concluded.

Such advice would be muted if

public disclosure was likely.

Based on advice from our lawyers, the News Tribune did not pursue litigation. But Locke then did something interesting.

He directed a senior staffer to call and answer all of my questions about what was beneath those black markings.

Rather than being a housekeeping bill, the interview revealed, the staff report called the bill “a threshold decision on the direction of gambling in Washington state,” one that would require “a quantum leap in the level of regulation.”

Locke should veto the bill, the report suggested.

He didn’t. And the release of the information, if not the document itself, showed that Locke was being deceptive about what he knew about the minicasino bill and when he knew it, which is exactly why I pursued it in the first place.

But at least the privilege claimed by Locke was limited to communications with close advisers. Justice Mary Fairhurst’s majority opinion last week said it applies to communications authored by or “solicited and

received” by the governor or aides.

Does this limit the privileged to communications conducted within the government as Lane concluded back in 1999? Or does it say the governor could shield communications from outside – such as recommendations from lobbyists or interest groups – as long as the opinions were “solicited and received” by the governor or even by his or her aides? If so, it is hard to come up with documents that wouldn’t fall under this exemption, a result that would end our ability to see who is influencing the governor.

Three of the eight justices in the majority wanted the privilege tightened with clear rules for how it would apply and how it could be overridden by the courts. They did not prevail, leaving us to await the next case, suffer the expenditure of more time and more expense, to get more guidance from the court.

Reprinted with permission.

Reach Callaghan at 253597-8657, peter.callaghan@ thenewstribune.com

Our free press has rights—and responsibilities

T

he First Amendment is very clear in its 45 words that it protects a “free press” along with our rights to religious freedom, free speech and the rights to assemble and petition.

But the Founders, in effect, placed a responsibility on that free press in return for being the only profession named in the Bill of Rights: The news media were to be a “watchdog on government,” providing us with the facts, perspective and sometimes contrarian views that help citizens better chart the course of their government.

One of the latest version of that centuries-old daily duty is playing out now in a Wisconsin courtroom, where a coalition of news and freedom of information groups are trying to extract information from closed court records about a previously undisclosed e-mail system involving Milwaukee County officials.

This particular effort engages not only the watchdog role, but also the public’s right to information obtained in the course of judicial proceedings, and even implicates freedom of information laws intended to keep the public’s business “public.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and others are seeking to access to public records collected during a sealed investigation of charges that included county employees campaigning

INTERNS

on the public’s dime for now-Gov. Scott Walker, then county executive and mentioned as a possible Republican presidential Gene candidate.

Policinski Convictions Senior Vice resulting from President, the investiga- First Amendment tion revealed a Center “private” email system by which certain trusted members of Walker’s staff could communicate outside official channels open to public view and inspection.

The use of such alternate e-mail arrangements, in which public officials conduct discussions about official business outside regular, known government e-mail systems, have been reported to have been used by federal agencies, Obama administration Cabinet officers, the New York City mayor’s office, and even by members of a New Jersey local library board.

Laws on public records and private e-mails vary greatly across the nation, and administrative decisions and court ruling also fail to draw clear lines.

In September, the National Archives told Congress that federal officials may use non-official addresses but that

the exchanges have to be kept and made public in response to freedom of information requests. But in July, in Illinois, an appellate court ruled in City of Champaign v. Madigan that under that state’s FOI laws, private e-mails and other electronic communications are not automatically public records just because officials discuss public matters – unless the messages are sent during a public meeting. In Wisconsin, courts have ruled that emails between officials conducting the public’s business are assumed to be public records subject to the State’s Open Records Law. The “watchdog” role may at times require active tactics by the press, as in the court filing by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which believes the public has a right to know what kind of business county officials were conducting through an alternative email system.

The newspaper cites longheld legal standing for the public to know what is going on in its courts, citing even an 1849 state law guaranteeing citizens the right to attend court sessions, as well as later state and federal court rulings on open courts and open records.

“Our founders knew that citizens couldn’t make informed decisions about public policy and the job their elected representative were doing unless they knew what

they were up to,’’ said George Stanley, Journal Sentinel managing editor. “We think these records belong to the public, not to government officials who might be embarrassed by what’s in them. But it’s a right you have to keep fighting for, over and over again.

And all of the state’s Freedom of Information advocates, including the Associated Press, the state broadcasters and the Wisconsin State Journal are with us.”

If successful, the motion by the newspaper and its partners to unseal the investigation’s records will let the public in Wisconsin judge for themselves whether the state’s “sunshine” laws were violated. It will mark another opportunity to set a new “openness standard” for the nation in using new technology in conducting the public’s business.

But it already marks yet another example where a news organization — in this case, one that already has a number of Pulitzer Prizes in recent years for great reporting — also is living up to its constitutional duty to represent the public.

Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center.

Contact him at gpolicinski@ newseum.org.

WNPA. Will will accept story ideas from members of WNPA and work with Pierzga to create a story list for the interns.

Members should contact Will by email, bwill@wnpa. com, or cell, (206) 799-3259 with requests as the legislative session develops.

Andrea Otanez, former politics editor at the Seattle Times

and former journalism instructor at Everett Community College, was hired by UW to succeed Henderson. She will prepare the students for their internships and work with them in person two days a week in Olympia.

Otanez also accepted the Foundation’s invitation to join the board (see story on page 1).

from page 1

call resource, the Foundation formed a committee.

Volunteering as onsite mentors and editors, one per intern, are Kasia Pierzga, former editor and publisher of the Whidbey Examiner in Coupeville and now with the Department of Revenue in Olympia; Dennis Box, editor of the Enumclaw Courier-Herald and several

other Sound newspapers; and Dave Ammons, longtime AP reporter and current director of Communications for the Secretary of State’s Office.

Jerry Cornfield, political reporter for the Everett Herald, will also be an onsite resource for the WNPA interns, as will Rowland Thompson of Allied Daily Newspapers and Bill Will, executive director,

TWN

3

NOVEMBER 2013

OPEN ACCESS & LEGAL ISSUES

Court backs ‘executive privilege’ claim The Associated Press

W

ashington state’s governor is allowed to claim “executive privilege” as a reason to withhold documents from the public even though that exemption isn’t among the hundreds listed in state law, the state Supreme Court ruled Oct. 17.

In an 8-1 decision, justices said the governor’s office has an inherent privilege as a result of the constitutional separation of powers.

“The executive communications privilege plays a critical part in preserving the integrity of the executive branch,” wrote Justice Mary Fairhurst in the majority opinion. “Courts have widely recognized that the chief executive must have access to candid advice in order to explore policy alternatives and reach appropriate decisions.”

Justices did provide some qualifications in their decision, saying the privilege only applies to communications made to inform policy choices, although it is largely left up to the governor’s office to pri-

vately interpret what documents would fall into that category.

The court also said a person requesting public records can argue that the need for the material outweighs the public interests served by protecting the communication.

“The privilege does not exist to shroud all conversations involving the governor in secrecy and place them beyond the reach of public scrutiny,” Fairhurst wrote.

In the only dissenting opinion, Justice James Johnson said the majority ruling essentially amended the state constitution and a voter-approved initiative that established public disclosure law decades ago.

“The majority ignores our state’s constitution, statutes, and populist tradition and does great damage to over 120 years of open government in Washington,” Johnson wrote.

“It is not alarmist to say that this decision could place a shroud of secrecy over much government conduct, unless changed by a wiser court, electorate, or legislature.”

The administration of former

Gov. Chris Gregoire cited executive privilege as a reason to keep documents on hundreds of occasions. The Freedom Foundation, a libertarian think tank, first brought its lawsuit on the issue after Gregoire’s office used that reasoning to withhold records related to the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement, medical marijuana and criminal pardons.

An attorney for the Freedom Foundation had argued that executive privilege isn’t a legitimate exemption and that the governor was using it to keep a broad range of documents secret. The court disagreed.

State law has long emphasized the value of disclosure and says the laws should be liberally construed to favor transparency.

“The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know,” state law says. “The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have

created.”

Johnson said he agreed that the governor must have access to candid advice but notes that state law already has hundreds of protections, including exemptions for things like preliminary drafts, notes and recommendations in which opinions are expressed or policies are formulated.

Johnson also disputed that the governor’s office would need as much secrecy as the president of the United States, which deals with issues such as war and national security. And he said concerned citizens will now have to bring difficult and expensive lawsuits in order to get a closer look at the state government.

“This ruling likely will not destroy our democracy, but it will affect its legitimacy in the eyes of the citizens of this state which is a start in that direction,” Johnson wrote.

Current Gov. Jay Inslee has said he does not intend to exercise the executive privilege exemption unless it was explicitly provided by the Legislature or a vote of the people.

Executive privilege ruling stirs controversy The Olympian

F

ormer Washington attorney general Rob McKenna says he favors a constitutional amendment as a way to counter last month’s state Supreme Court ruling that upheld a governor’s claim of executive privilege. Former governors Chris Gregoire and Gary Locke had invoked such a privilege claim in refusing to release certain sensitive public records, and Olympia-based Evergreen Freedom Foundation (now The Freedom Foundation) sued to strike down that claim.

Current Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, and McKenna, a Republican, both said last year during their campaign for governor that they would not exercise the privilege if elected.

McKenna went further, explaining on his Smarter Government Washington web site why he thinks a constitutional amendment Rob is needed.

McKenna He called the court ruling, which had just one dissenting justice, Jim Johnson, “deeply damaging to the ideal that state government should be open and transparent.”

McKenna went on: “Even if the court is right that there is an implied separation-of-powers argument for an exemption, the court ruling as it stands now allows a ‘qualified privilege’ that isn’t very qualified at all.

Spokane School District loses public records suit

Spokesman-Review, Spokane

S

pokane Public Schools will pay a Spokane woman with a history of needling officials $130,000 after failing to comply with a 2009 public records request.

Laurie Rogers is a private tutor, frequent critic and describes herself as an advocate for transparent government.

She had filed a request for all “promotional materials on the 2006 and 2009 bonds and levies.”

The district failed to fulfill her request for records when it took a narrow definition of her inquiry and made missteps.

“We don’t do promotional materials. We do informational,” said Mark Anderson, associate superintendent.

“We quickly gathered all the materials we thought complied and gave them to her. What we

didn’t realize was our archivist only went back to 2008, and we would have needed to ask each individual employee (for documents going back to 2006).”

The district also failed to include an index to list legal justification for redactions within the public documents.

Seattle attorney Michele Earl-Hubbard, who corepresented Rogers, called her client “brave” for taking on the district in a Spokane Superior Court case.

“The way they handled her requests was not appropriate,” she said.

Rogers accepted a judgment offer from the district last month to resolve the case.

Rogers received hundreds more records with fewer redactions after hiring a lawyer. “I don’t take frivolous cases. This See SCHOOL, page 4

The practical effect will be that, instead of it being incumbent upon the governor’s office to prove why a document can be withheld under a specific exemption from the Public Records Act, the requestor of the documents will have to take the expensive route of going to court to prove a need for the documents. That’s backwards, and it’s damaging to the public’s right to know.”

In her majority opinion, Justice Mary Fairhurst argued that a constitutional amendment was the proper venue for those who want to bind a governor’s hand on this. She wrote: “The people delegated supreme executive power to the governor when they ratified the constitution. The gubernatorial communications privilege,

delegated along with supreme executive power and vested in the governorship, cabins the right to demand information through open government laws.

Republican Party, 283 P.3d at 856. The PRA cannot override this constitutional delegation of power; any such attempt must come through constitutional amendment.”

The Washington Policy Center’s Jason Mercier, who has served on the board of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, was among the first calling for a constitutional amendment last week.

State Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, said last week she will introduce a constitutional amendment for consideration by the 2014 legislative session.

PDC eases report rules for senator The Columbian, Vancouver

S

tate Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, can skip disclosing most of the top clients of his sales consulting business, the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission unanimously ruled Oct. 24.

Benton still must report clients paying him $10,000 or more a year, but only if those clients operate in Washington state, or if they are listed as a client anywhere in the public domain.

Benton’s company’s website has included testimonials from a few of his clients, and Benton said that less than 1 percent of his clients are in Washington.

The PDC requires state elected officials to disclose financial information on an F1 report so the public can see whether they have any potential financial conflicts of interest. Benton has omitted a list of his top clients from his F1 reports since 1999.

The PDC took note of the lapse in Benton’s reporting after an inquiry from The Columbian.

After being contacted by the PDC, Benton filed a request asking the commission to exclude him from the requirement.

In his exemption request, Benton said he shouldn’t have to provide a list of top clients because most of his clients are TV stations that are in financial trouble. The stations don’t want their competitors to know they’re in need of sales advice, he said. He also said it’s too time consuming to determine which of his clients has paid him $10,000 or more.

“The company database does not separate customers based on the dollar amount of their contracts, so to pull out that information would create a significant burden on the company’s small staff,” Benton wrote. The request says his company, which is operated out See SENATOR, page 5

Seattle’s database: Tag, you’re it Seattle Times

I

f you drive in Seattle, there is a good chance the police department knows where your car has been at least once during the past three months.

Seattle police recorded license plates on 72 percent of Seattle’s streets while searching for stolen cars and chronic parking offenders during an 86-day period this past summer. In all, police made more than 1.6 million scans of more than 600,000 unique plates, according to an analysis of a department database.

Nearly half of city streets received at least three visits from the license-plate scanners between May 11 and Aug. 5, according to the analysis.

Citywide, the scans yielded 1,858 stolen cars and illegal parkers.

The analysis provides the first snapshot of the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) license-plate-scanner program . It has come under scrutiny

amid concerns about how much information government agencies collect.

The program works like this: A dozen police vehicles travel the streets equipped with cameras that automatically scan plates and compare them to lists of stolen cars and people with at least four unpaid parking tickets. If there is a hit, the officer responds. Even if there is not, the record is stored for three months in an SPD database that can be used for future criminal investigations.

Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), complain that retaining the records on vehicles’ whereabouts could potentially lead to abuse.

To better understand the SPD’s database, The Seattle Times in late July requested a copy of it.

Police agencies in some states have denied those types of requests from reporters.

But the SPD responded, providing a massive electronic file that contained records for the three previous months.

The numbers show the SPD scanned an average of nearly 19,000 plates per day during the time, including roughly 23,000 on weekdays, 11,000 on Saturdays and 8,000 on Sundays.

Twenty-one percent of the scans did not have a location, because the GPS was not picking up a signal or had not been activated.

The locations of the rest spanned the entire city, with some exceptions.

“You’re trying to get to every corner of the city and have that visible presence,” said police spokesman Sean Whitcomb, “whether it’s in a parkingenforcement role or a 911 emergency-response role.”

Among the most frequently scanned areas were highly See TAGS, page 4

4

NOVEMBER 2013

TWN

Suit claims Everett police ignored records request The Herald, Everett

T

he mother of a severely allergic Mukilteo man who died in the Snohomish County Jail in 2012 is pushing for fines against the county after a protracted public records fight.

Attorneys representing Rosemary Saffioti were seeking jail security video footage from the morning her son, Michael, collapsed and died. He’d been booked the day before on a misdemeanor marijuana possession warrant out of Lynnwood.

Saffioti’s attorneys filed a public records request for the tapes, but initially were told the video didn’t exist. Later, after finding a reference to their existence in a report on a Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office death investigation, they pressed again for disclosure.They filed a lawsuit Oct. 2 in King County

SCHOOL

Superior Court and ultimately got the jail security footage they were seeking.

“There is an impression of bad faith,” said attorney Cheryl Snow, who is representing Rosemary Saffioti.

A $10 million claim for damages was filed in October alleging Michael Saffioti was denied adequate and timely medical care after an allergic reaction to the breakfast he was served in the jail. In November 2012, a records supervisor for the jail responded to the public records request, saying there was no video showing Michael Saffioti or jail staff during the time he was incarcerated, according to court records.

She told the lawyers that video recordings are only maintained for 60 days as required state law.

The lawyers learned otherwise in July 2013 and renewed their request. Records showed that a

sheriff’s detective investigating Saffioti’s death had made copies of the tape and booked them into evidence.

In August, the jail records supervisor told attorneys representing Saffioti that the video did exist after all and that she would mail a copy. The video never arrived through the mail. Arrangements a month later were made for a paralegal to pick up a copy of the video, but it only covered a 41-minute time frame after Saffioti had collapsed. Saffioti’s attorney pushed for video from earlier that morning. Snow said the additional footage was made available only after a lawsuit was filed.

The video “definitely supports our theory,” she said. The public records lawsuit seeks $100 a day in penalties against the county during the time the records were not made available. It also seeks

attorney fees. The Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office is looking into the matter.”We are reviewing the allegations in the complaint and we’re working with the department of corrections and the sheriff’s office to determine what responses they have made to the records request,” chief civil deputy prosecutor Jason Cummings said.

Michael Saffioti is among the eight people who have died at the jail since 2010. In addition to his case, a $10 million wrongful death claim was filed in March on behalf of Lyndsey Lason. That claim alleges that the 27-year-old woman’s death could have been prevented if staff had provided timely and adequate medical attention to Lason. The Everett mother died from a pulmonary infection in 2011.

become involved in processing requests must be trained.

The district is working on its website with the hope of offering public record searches and downloads. The district also wants to buy a new internal electronic archiving system so officials can more easily retrieve documents using keyword searches.

And the district is forming a committee to consult with them on how to better handle public records requests that appear to be overbroad. One issue officials want to address is making requests more specific. In some

cases anonymous people seek all records with a word like “she” in them.

The district spent $350,000 on requests last year, Superintendent Shelley Redinger said.

Spokane Public Schools “can’t be using taxpayer money to pay for mistakes with records, including lawsuits,” she said.

“We expect that all stakeholders want this system to work as effectively and efficiently as possible with the ultimate goal of providing our children with a quality education.”

from page 3

case got stronger as we went along,” Earl-Hubbard said.

She thinks the district cast her client as a nuisance when it told people swept up in the records request that it was Rogers who sought the information.

“I think she look a lot of heat in the community because she called the district out on their activity,” Earl-Hubbard said.

“She had a legitimate reason to make these requests.”

Cases like this are becoming more common. In September 2013, a judge fined University of Washington $720,000 for

withholding 12,000 pages of records in a case where a professor claimed bias prevented her from receiving tenure, according to news reports. Those records may have helped her win the case.

The district is using the Rogers case as a learning experience, Anderson said. “We made some honest mistakes, and that’s why we needed to get better.”

An employee has since been hired to process public records requests rather than the past practice of having administrators fit records gathering into their day. All staff members who

our

TAGS

from page 3 trafficked parts of the city: Capitol Hill, downtown, Sodo, the Chinatown International District, and parts of Queen Anne and Ballard.

The largest clusters of scans appeared near the SPD’s East Precinct (12th Avenue and East Pine Street) and parking-enforcement headquarters (Airport Way South and South Walker Street).

Several other clusters also stood out, including near Golden Gardens Park, where four separate officers scanned plates on 32 different days.

Whitcomb said they may have decided to look there for stolen cars, which are often dumped in popular parking lots.

One officer scanned license plates down to Fife on two different occasions, once up to Snohomish and, on 34 days, outside the Seattle Police Athletic Association on East Marginal Way South.

Whitcomb said it’s common for officers to leave the cameras on as they help with out-of-city investigations or take part in training.

“My understanding is that it’s actually just on, chewing up license-plate data because you just never know when or where you’re going to come across a stolen car,” he said.

“It’s a technology that’s kind of always running.”

economy

Nutrition today.

Good health tomorrow.® Washington is home to the most productive potato fields in the world and the potato industry in Washington is powering the economy to the tune of $4.6 billion in annual revenue. This industry also has a tremendous impact on our local communities by helping to improve the things we all use like our roads, schools and public services. It doesn’t stop there, the potato industry is responsible for 23,500 jobs across the state.

For potato recipes and educational materials, visit www.potatoes.com.

POTATOES PER SERVING:

110

CALORIES

0g

620 mg

VITAMIN

18% DV

45% DV

TOTAL FAT POTASSIUM & SODIUM

C

(509) 765-8845 | www.potatoes.com

TWN

5

NOVEMBER 2013

Public records law Pasco dodges records lawsuit ‘frequent flier’ dies Tri-City Herald

was scheduled for 10 a.m. the following day. prison inmate who According to a 2009 Seattle gained fame through Times article, Parmelee was his use, and abuse, of serving 17 years for firebombing the state public records access the cars of two lawyers. During laws died Oct. 2. his time in custody, he filed hunAllan Parmelee, 58, was dreds of public records requests pronounced dead about 6:24 demanding judges’, lawyers’ and a.m. at the Washington State correctional officers’ personnel Penitentiary. Walla Walla records, photos, addresses, County Coroner Richard work schedules and birth dates.

Greenwood said the preAccording to news reports, he liminary cause of death was once threatened to tear out a natural causes. An autopsy court reporter’s fingernails.

Parmelee won a legal vicFIND YOUR 25-HOUR DAY tory in 2010 when the state My 50 years on 15 small Supreme Court ruled that the publications can help you: Department of Corrections • sell more ads & subs • simplify operations must pay his attorney’s fees • avoid bricks through your window after DOC officials cited him • start/improve your website under a criminal libel law, Jay Becker passed in 1869, and gave him Community Consulting jaybecker@aol.com — (206) 790-9457 10 days in isolation.

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

A

A

lawyer for the city of Pasco celebrated a court victory Oct. 9 by presenting his opponent with a paper copy of an email.

The move came after Superior Court Judge Sal Mendoza Jr. dismissed a public records lawsuit filed against the city

by Roger Lenk, who asked for emails from city council members who voted last year to annex part of the area known as the “doughnut hole.”

Mendoza ruled the city properly responded to Lenk’s requests for emails to and from Rebecca Francik and Saul Martinez on their personal and government accounts.

The city admitted that it failed to provide one email, in which Francik thanked the city manager’s assistant for letting her know a city meeting had been canceled.

Mendoza said the city performed a reasonable search for emails and disagreed with Lenk’s statements that the city had other emails that it had lost, destroyed or failed to locate.

“That is nothing other than speculation at this point,” Mendoza said.

Patrick Galloway, representing the city, gave Lenk a copy of Francik’s missing email at the end of the hearing.

Lenk had found out about the email through a public records request to the Pasco School District, where Francik works as a librarian.

Mendoza also ruled that the city will not have to provide

Lenk with metadata from emails until February 2016, when it is set to be completed as part of the city’s schedule for release of information to Lenk. Metadata, or “data about data,” is hidden information including where an email was sent from and anybody who was blind-copied on it.

Lenk also requested years of records from Councilman Mike Garrison, but found nothing substantial. He is still waiting for his requests to be answered for records for Mayor Matt Watkins, City Manager Gary Crutchfield and Fire Chief Bob Gear. The city scheduled the release of records through 2016, and the schedule was approved by Judge Bruce Spanner.

The city estimates that it has provided 120,000 pages of documents to Lenk, who has helped lead the fight for two ballot propositions that would change the city’s form of government and eliminate two recent annexations in the doughnut hole.

City staff has spent 900 hours working on Lenk’s requests at a cost of $46,800, plus another $120,000 in attorney fees.

That doesn’t include $12,056 that Spanner ruled the city had to pay in November 2012 because it failed to supply Lenk with 17 documents in a timely fashion.

Lenk argued Oct. 9 that Francik and Martinez ignored a memorandum from Pasco Deputy City Manager Stan Strebel that told council members to stick to their city email accounts to conduct city business. He accused the council

Great �lassi�eds are

Closer than you think

members of creating a “shadow government” using personal email accounts that had been destroyed by the time he made his public records requests.

“Effectively, defendant Francik and defendant Martinez conducted the city’s business by using non-city email accounts,” Lenk said. “All we are getting is what goes through the city’s system.”

Francik and Martinez did not attend the hearing at the Franklin County Courthouse. In affidavits, they denied sending any city government related emails that wouldn’t have shown up in the city’s system, either from their accounts or by being received on another city email account.

Strebel told the Tri-City Herald he is confident they did not conduct secret business.

“These council members have indicated they don’t do that,” he said.

SENATOR from page 3

of his Vancouver home, makes about $600,000 a year and has two to five employees.

Benton founded National Consulting Services Inc. in 1989, and the company provides marketing, sales and political advice for media companies, politicians and some law firms.

In addition to his consulting work and his Senate job, Benton is Clark County’s environmental services director, a job that he was appointed to earlier this year.

Adpay’s product suite is simple to use and easy to get started.

Ask us about our FREE obituary order entry tool for funeral directors.

Contact us at 303.268.1527 or sales@adpay.com.

Adpay is a proud sponsor of WNPA!

Mobile Apps * Marketplaces * Self-Serve Display Ads * Obituary Order Entry ™

®

Media Solutions

6

NOVEMBER 2013

TWN

Sound president Inland honors David Lord leads LMA board Inland Press Association

G

loria Fletcher, president of Sound Publishing, was elected chairwoman of the board of directors of the Local Media Association at the group’s fall conference last month in St. Louis, Mo. Sound describes Local Media Association (formerly Suburban Newspapers of America, SNA) Board of Directors as “comprised of innovative and forward thinking individuals representing some of the brightest minds in the newspaper world. Their collective support and dedication

helps guide Local Media Association and its members on the road to success in today’s Gloria dynamic and ever-evolving Fletcher industry.”

Sound Publishing is Washington’s largest community newspaper group, with more than 30 titles.

Spokesman owner purchases seven Montana TV stations The Associated Press

T

he Spokane-based Cowles Co. on Oct. 1 announced plans to buy a group of seven television stations from the Max Media of Montana Co. Cowles publishes the Spokesman-Review and owns NBC television affiliate KHQ in Spokane.

The Max Media stations being sold to Cowles Montana Media Co. are: KULR-TV in Billings; KTMF-TV with stations in Missoula and

Kalispell; KWYB-TV in Butte and Bozeman; KFBB-TV in Great Falls and KHBB-TV in Helena. KULR is an NBC affiliate and the others are ABC/ FOX affiliates.

The companies expect to close the transaction by Dec. 1.

The deal must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. Terms were not released.

Cowles Montana Media is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cowles Co., a family-owned media, forest products and real estate company.

F

ormer Pioneer Newspapers President and CEO David Lord was honored at Inland Press Association’s 128th Annual Meeting Oct. 27-29 in Chicago.

Lord recieved the Ralph D. Casey/Minnesota Award, presented each year to a publisher, editor or senior newspaper staff member who has a distinguished record of leadership and service in the newspaper industry. The award, named in honor of the first director of the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communications, is intended to honor someone who is an agenda-setter, bringing about change while exemplifying the finest in journalism and community service.

Lord is a past president and chairman of Inland, and an active member since coming to the newspaper industry in an unusual way in 1990. His first career was in law. Lord served as Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for King County, Washington. Prosecuting high-profile murder cases, he interacted often with journalists and said he always had good relationships with the press.

“The highlight of my career,” he said with a laugh, “was being in a story in True Detective” magazine, which wrote about the case of a female “hit man.”

In the mid-1980s, as an attorney with a Seattle law firm specializing in business

litigation, he represented one of the Pioneer Newspapers in a legal matter. “I started doing more work for Pioneer, and in 1990 the owners asked if I would serve as president,” Lord said.

Pioneer, now known as Pioneer News Group, is a family media business owned by members of the Scripps family and formed in 1974 by James G. Scripps. It publishes daily newspapers in the greater Northwest and has extensive digital operations, including digital services agencies.

“When I came to the newspaper industry, I had a very surface view of the business, and I was eager to learn about many different things,” Lord said. He was told about Inland, and at his first meeting instantly felt welcomed.

“I liked that Inland provided the practical things that I really needed to know about newspapers,” he said. Within a couple of years he was serving on Inland’s Board of Directors.

A Midwest native, Lord said that Inland, while now counting members in every U.S. state, and in Canada and Bermuda, retains a Midwestern feel. “It’s what makes Inland special,” Lord said. “You get that attitude of really focusing on the practical, and an almost overwhelming friendliness.”

Lord retired as president and CEO of Pioneer News Group in 2008, serving as vice chairman for the next four years.

“David Lord is a most deserving recipient of the Ralph D. Casey/Minnesota Award,” said

Inland Executive Director Tom Slaughter. “Anyone who knows David appreciates his devotion to the industry, his real-world approach to problem-solving, and his positive and infectious attitude. His service to the industry is well known-in a variety of roles.”

In addition to his service to Inland, Lord has been a member of the board of directors of The Associated Press, the PAGE buying cooperative, the American Press Institute, and the Newspaper Association of America. He was recently named to the Board of Directors of Wick Communications.

Allied Law Group Once Again Named a

Best Law Firm

&

for Media and First Amendment Law

by U.S. News and World Report Michele Earl-Hubbard Named

Best Lawyers’ 2014 Seattle

Lawyer of the Year for First Amendment Law

"MMJFE -BX (SPVQ

Michele L. Earl-Hubbard

Representing Those Who Keep Government Accountable www.alliedlawgroup.com • (206) 443-0200 • info@alliedlawgroup.com

First Amendment Law - Seattle

TWN

7

NOVEMBER 2013

Davenport weekly makes move Sports editor passes Times spent two decades in office on Morgan Street

T

he Davenport Times began producing weekly issues from a new office this fall.

After about 20 years at 506 Morgan St. in Davenport’s downtown core, the newspaper moved its offices to the edge of town in a suite at 1150 Morgan St. The building is owned by Inland Power and Light.

At the newspaper’s openhouse barbecue last month, held concurrently with Spirit

Week at the local high school, about 45 people participated, including entering a drawing for a free subscription.

The Times’ husband-andwife staff, editor Mark Smith and ad manager Marcia Smith, are in their fourteenth year at the paper.

The staff at a sister newspaper, Cheney Free Press, handles the Times’ bookkeeping and design work.

The Smiths noted that the new space is better organized and less expensive than the previous office.

The editor praised the new phone system’s speaker phone, which makes it more comfort-

able to key in information while on a phone call. “It’s often the little things that make the most difference,” Mark Smith said.

Ad manager Marcia Smith was pleased about the newspaper’s new lighted sign, which gives the paper more visibility than it had before, and the improved storage shelves for the archives.

Horizon Credit Union, the third tenant in the building, brings some foot traffic into the newspaper office as well.

The landlord of the Times’ previous office plans to remodel and expand into the Times’ space.

SmallTownPapers brings King aboard

Executive comes to digital business from AccuWeather

S

mallTownPapers, Inc. is pleased to announce that Mike King has been named the company’s Director of Business Development. King comes to SmallTownPapers from AccuWeather, Inc. where he worked for nearly ten years securing partnerships with major media organizations including the LA Times, Baltimore Sun, Virginian-Pilot and Japan Times.

While with AccuWeather, he successfully forged relationships with Huffington Post/

AOL; and with newspaper groups such as Morris, CNHI, Tribune and Black Press/Sound Publishing. He also worked with community newspapers including the Allentown Morning Call, the Weston Democrat, Planet Jackson Hole, the Marietta Daily Journal and the AppealDemocrat.

In his new role with SmallTownPapers, King will promote nationally the company’s suite of products designed specifically for the news industry, including its bound volume digitization program for community newspapers.

“I am thrilled to have Mike King lead our marketing and outreach team,” said Paul

Jeffko, president and founder of SmallTownPapers. “His experience, insight and depth of media industry knowledge are exceptional.”

In addition to its archiving program which digitizes newspapers and other publications, SmallTownPapers operates the popular journalism contest platform, BetterBNC. “Mike is a great communicator that publishers readily engage with,” Jeffko added.

Founded in 1999, SmallTownPapers works with hundreds of weekly newspapers to make digital copies of their historic bound volume archives and currently published editions.

in Port Angeles Sudden stroke fells LaBrie at age 63

time, and few marked it like Brad LaBrie as he wrote about players’ thrills and failures and the teams’ wins and losses.”

B

Vietnam veteran

Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles

rad LaBrie, Peninsula Daily News sports editor and longtime journalist, died Aug. 31 in Olympic Medical Center from complications following a massive stroke.

LaBrie had been in the critical care unit since Aug. 19, when he was taken to the hospital by ambulance after collapsing while leaving a restaurant in Port Angeles.

For 15 years, LaBrie’s coverage of North Olympic Peninsula high school and Peninsula College sports and his perspectives on everything from wrestling to football and baseball filled the pages of the PDN. His stories were clipped from the paper by proud parents and framed, or glued into scrapbooks, while delighting and informing sports fans across the Peninsula.

“He particularly paid attention to the smaller sports, and he made sure all the teams got in-depth coverage,” said John Brewer, PDN publisher and editor.

“And if you won a title, you got a banner headline.

“High school sports is how many in our community mark

LaBrie, 63, was born March 3, 1950, in Sacramento, Calif.

He attended Southwest Oregon Community College in Coos Bay, Ore., graduating with an associate degree in 1974, and the University of Oregon in Eugene, Ore., graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1978.

He was an Army radio operator, serving in Germany and Vietnam during the Vietnam War. LaBrie worked as a reporter at the West-Lane News in Veneta, Ore.; sports editor and education reporter at the Del Norte Triplicate in Crescent City, Calif.; news editor at the Sandy Post in Sandy, Ore.; and as a sports editor at the Lake Oswego Review in Lake Oswego, Ore., and Peninsula Gateway in Gig Harbor before becoming sports editor of the PDN in 1998.

In addition to all sports, he enjoyed movies and reading, and he loved animals, especially cats.

He is survived by his wife, Sidra Johansen. The couple made their home in Port Angeles.

Press Forward We applaud the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association’s commitment to advocating for community newspapers, freedom of the press and open government.

We are honored to continue serving as a resource in these valuable efforts.

Anchorage. Bellevue. Los Angeles. New York. Portland. San Francisco. Seattle. Shanghai. Washington, D.C. | dwt.com © 2013 Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. All rights reserved. 877.398.8417

8

NOVEMBER 2013

TWN

CAREER MOVES n Lee Horton, a sports writer and and outdoors columnist with the Peninsula Daily News since April 2012, has been named the newspaper’s new sports editor.

Before joining the PDN, Horton earned a master’s degree in sports journalism from Indiana University in December 2011.

He grew up in the Salt Lake City area, where he spent five years working in sports radio while completing an undergraduate degree at the University of Utah.

He and his wife, Lisa, have one daughter. Executive Editor Rex Wilson said a search has begun for a sports writer/outdoors columnist for the position Horton vacates. Horton succeeds Brad LaBrie, sports editor

TIMES

from page 1 Dardarian, who has been at the newspaper since 2000, said, “I’m excited to remain based in the newsroom, but to extend my reach to work with other departments . . . Chief among my jobs will be to continue to identify how we can bring more value to our community and also help this company thrive.”

Other newsroom leadership positions announced: Jim Simon, who has been assistant managing editor for local news, becomes deputy managing editor, focusing on Sunday content and enterprise and bringing the newspaper’s hard-news efforts in metro, business and investigative journalism under one umbrella.

Ryan Blethen, currently executive producer of seattletimes. com, was named assistant managing editor/digital, overseeing online content and subscriptions.

Ryan Blethen is the son of the publisher.

Michele Matassa Flores, returning to the Times after working most recently at Puget Sound Business Journal, is the assistant managing editor/ entertainment, overseeing sports and features.

Leon Espinoza, currently executive news editor, became the assistant managing editor for standards and interactivity. His work will safeguard the credibility of the Seattle Times, and make sure the Times listens to its readers.

Whitney Stensrud, the art director for graphics, was named assistant managing editor for visuals, exploring effective new ways to connect with readers through photos, interactive graphics, charts, illustrations and videos.

Carole Carmichael, in her continuing role as assistant managing editor, will help develop new ways to connect the newspaper with the community.

Best told news staffers that top priorities will include: • Sunday newspapers that showcase elegant storytelling, along with watchdog and investigative stories; • Web presentations that maximize the potential of multimedia avenues and pull readers into the conversation; • Daily news reports – in print and online — that set the news agenda for the region, and • Content that creates a strong sense of place and connection to the community.

since 1998 who died Aug. 31 of complications from a stroke.

“Although the sports editor vacancy comes under difficult and bittersweet circumstances, I know you’ll want to join me in congratulating Lee,” Wilson said in announcing the promotion. n Rachella “Shell” Schoonover, 21, has been hired as the new bookkeeper and office manager for the OmakOkanogan County Chronicle.

Previously, Schoonover worked as a customer service representative and bank teller for Wells Fargo in Nampa and Caldwell, Idaho. n The Columbia Basin Herald in Moses Lake hired Basin native Chanet Stevenson, a recent Central Washington

University graduate, as paginator. She studied communications with an emphasis in print journalism and worked on the school newspaper, the Observer.

Stevenson is designing and laying out the paper, copyediting and doing some reporting. n Sarah Low joined the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber staff as a part-time reporter and calendar editor.

Her work has been published in “The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism,” and she is an avid blogger and freelance writer. After working for about a dozen years as a nurse and nurse practitioner, Low left that field to care for her autistic son. She and her partner, Richard Parr, have two high-school age sons.

Low succeeds Susan Riemer, who was promoted to a full-time reporter position. n Heather Perry, a 2012 WNPA Foundation internship scholarship winner, has joined the Business Examiner in Tacoma as a graphic designer.

Perry graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. n Chinook Observer reporter Amanda Frink has left Long Beach for St. Helens, Ore. She started at the Observer as an intern in 2006, after graduating from Washington State University, and was hired full time in 2007. She had lived on the Long Beach Peninsula since 1995. n Sound Publishing’s Bainbridge Island Review has

hired Luciano “Luke” Marano as the new arts and leisure reporter. He is also handling general assignment stories and helping with sports coverage.

Though relatively new to the island, Marano has covered news events in Kitsap County for the Review’s sister newspapers, the Central Kitsap Reporter in Silverdale and the Bremerton Patriot. His journalism background includes service in the Navy as a mass communication specialist (photographer/journalist), with tours of duty in Hawaii and Everett. Marano succeeds Cecilia Garza, who was promoted to the city government beat. Garza succeeds Richard D. Oxley, who transferred to the North Kitsap Herald in Poulsbo.

TNT honored for open access fights

Tacoma daily recognized at PNNA meeting The Associated Press

T

he News Tribune of Tacoma is the winner of this year’s Ted Natt First Amendment Award for its commitment to fighting for access to public records and the principles of open government.

The award honored the newspaper for its defense of the First Amendment and deep reporting on a wide range of issues.

“The News Tribune obviously has a long-term commitment to pursue open government at every available turn and with all means available,” Edward Miller, one of the contest judges, said.

The award is named for the former publisher of the Daily News of Longview, who died in a helicopter crash in 1999.

The competition was open to newspapers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Montana that are memKaren bers of The Peterson Associated Press.

“It’s gratifying to be honored for this work, which means so much to us and our community,” Executive Editor Karen Peterson said.

In a series of stories over the past year, the News Tribune demonstrated ongoing leadership in the fight for open records and open government, the judges said.

For example, after mass slayings in Colorado and Connecticut, and a series of local killings involving people with mental illness, the paper reviewed the state’s involuntary

commitment system. It found numerous examples of mentally ill patients boarded without treatment in hospital emergency rooms, potentially in violation of state and federal law.

Reporters covering the story encountered numerous barriers to records and resistance from state and local officials, “but by using the leverage of rules governing open courts, we took an exclusive and deep look at commitment hearings,” Peterson said.

The newspaper also: • Sought contracts involved in a fee dispute between Click Cable TV — the city of Tacoma’s public system — and a regional broadcaster. The broadcaster and five other broadcasters sued the News Tribune to prevent reporting on the contracts. The newspaper is continuing the court fight.

• Won out over stonewalling from military officials and got access to records concerning

Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers who were deployed overseas despite being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

• Overcame resistance to requests for records concerning a Lakewood police officer who embezzled more than $150,000 from a charity fund for the families of four slain comrades.

• Wrote numerous stories based on background checks of every candidate for local, state and federal offices, including an account, previously unreported, of a congressional candidate’s ill-fated tenure as president of a medical school. The newspaper also questioned the secretive process the Washington State Redistricting Commission used to draw districts before the election.

The award was presented Sept. 19 at the annual meeting of Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association in Seattle.

Pioneer News Group opens digital agency

S

ince the Pioneer News Group launched a digital agency in Mount Vernon this past June, web design and social media management have emerged as the most popular services.

“These are the foundation of what every business needs to be good at,” Jeff Avgeris, Digital Revenue Director, Pioneer News Group, said in an email. “Many businesses know this. They are just looking for a trusted, cost-effective partner to implement for them.”

The agency, Skagit Connext, is targeting small- and mediumsize businesses in Skagit County, aiming to increase the success the digital side of their business, whether at a local, regional or national level.

In addition to web design and social media building and management, Skagit Connext also offers search-engine marketing, retargeting and email marketing.

Pioneer hired Somer Damm and Alonzo Marrow to staff the agency.

Damm, formerly with the

Seattle Times Company, manages marketing and sales in Skagit County. Prior to eight years with the Times, she served stints with Gannett and BELO. Marrow’s primary focus is consulting with businesses on how to build their digital business. He has more than 20 years’ experience in sales and marketing in the entertainment and music industries.

Thought current clients are primarily in Idaho, where Pioneer has several newspapers, Damm said she and Marrow are

also working with local jewelry and furniture stores, restaurants and retirement facilities.

Avgeris noted the agency’s most effective advertising is business referrals, though it is serving as its own test case by promoting itself online at skagitconnext. com, through direct mail, searchengine marketing and at local business-to-business functions.

The company’s goal for the agency is to be the local expert in both the print advertising and digital advertising world.

Sun supports tribute to columnist Santana Kitsap Sun, Bremerton

T

he United Way of Kitsap County is honoring Sally Santana, a homeless advocate who died this fall, with a fund that will be used to aid the homeless and help agencies that assist them.

Santana, religion columnist for the Kitsap Sun, died Sept. 2 at age 58. Her son, Gabe, who also had significant health problems, died later that month.

Sally Santana, who never forgot about being a homeless

child, became Kitsap’s most active and vocal advocate for people needing shelter. She was recognized many times for her work, including receiving a Governor’s Volunteer Service Award in 2011.

The Port Orchard woman played a key role in opening shelters in Bremerton and Port Orchard. She created a list of services available to the homeless, such as food, clothing and housing, and wrote a newsletter for them.

Shelters that Santana helped

bring into existence house 57 families one year and 48 the next, said Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent.

The board of directors of the United Way wanted to honor Santana’s tireless work and advocacy, said David Foote, executive director.

“Sally was the voice of the homeless in Kitsap County,” Foote said. “She was a strong advocate for the less fortunate.”

The United Way will match each dollar contributed by the community — up to $50,000 —

to seed the fund. When enough has been collected, United Way will seek out proposals for grants.

The United Way hopes that the money will be a catalyst for improving existing programs and adding new programs that support the development of homeless shelters for men, women and families.

To make a matching donation to the Sally Santana Fund, contact United Way at 360-3778505.

TWN

9

NOVEMBER 2013

Pioneer, API partner to pipe into ‘passions’

Group’s president promises ‘a lot of change’ ahead

I

n a partnership with American Press Institute, Pioneer News Group is testing a new approach to aligning their newspapers’ editorial content with readers’ passions.

The process thus far has involved content analysis and new tagging software, reader surveys and action plans for each newspaper.

Still to come, to quote Pioneer President Mike Gugliotto, is “a lot of change.”

Tom Rosenstiel, API’s executive director and the project lead, agreed.

“The people who are going to thrive are going to be excited about the new possibilities, not view them as an inconvenience to how they used to do things,” Rosenstiel said.

Rosenstiel, API deputy director Jeff Sonderman and Howard Finberg, who also works with the Poynter Institute, presented the project at the annual meeting of Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association this past September.

Surveying readers

Rosenstiel drafted a survey, with input from Sonderman and Finberg, that would identify readers’ passions particular to each Pioneer daily.

Unlike reader surveys of past decades, which typically asked readers what they thought of the newspaper and what they liked about it, this survey asked open-ended questions such as why the respondents live in their community, how they describe their community to visitors, what their concerns are and what they are passionate about.

All newspapers used the same survey, which Finberg programmed into Survey Monkey. In early summer it was distributed on the newspapers’ websites and promoted in the printed newspapers.

“We asked them (about their passions) in six ways,” Finberg said at the presentation.

API handled the analysis and, in late summer, provided each paper with a ranked index of their readers’ passions.

In communities with significant outdoor recreation nearby, the outdoors was a huge passion and a clear choice for one of four topics each newspaper was charged with selecting as core, or tentpole, topics expected to engage readers on a deeper level.

“People cancel the paper because they don’t have time to read it,” said Jeff Sonderman.

“The truth is, it’s not important or relevant enough to their lives, and this new strategy will get them to say ‘I can’t afford not to read it.’”

Making, testing coverage changes

While pursuing tentpole topics, what happens to existing patterns of coverage?

“Go up the value chain instead of covering everything like we used to,” said Sonderman.

“No one wants more of anything; they have too much,” Finberg said.

Pioneer asked each publisher

to use their passion index and API’s content analysis to create a six-month plan of experiments and changes.

A few of the presenters’ suggestions were to write briefs about important news that isn’t part of a tentpole, let go of areas (like pro sports) that others do well and exhaustively online and allocate those reclaimed resources to the tentpoles, and go deeper on topics of high value that are diverse enough to grab a range of readers.

COMMITTING RESOURCES

In a 12-month period, Pioneer and API went from identifying goals to reviewing detailed plans of how to engage readers through their passions

Heather Hernandez

Mike Gugliotto

Tom Rosenstiel

Tagging software

Editors are already using API’s new tagging software to tag stories’ content and journalistic characteristics.

The menu, about 25 tags shared across the company, includes enterprise, reactive and extraordinary news event as well as the depth and breadth of a story.

Publishers’ content audit reports combine tagging with web-based reader data including page views by topic, duration of engagement and other factors.

“For the first time we have multiple data points to help us not only identify why people live in our community, but also what’s important to them and where we fit in this equation,” Heather Hernandez, publisher of Pioneer newspapers in Mount Vernon and Ellensburg, said in an email.

“Competitors are very data driven and use their customers’ behavior to know (how to engage them),” Rosenstiel said at the presentation.

“The tagging software makes it possible to understand how your coverage is being responded to in the community.”

Involving readers and staff

Rosenstiel also urged publishers to bring readers into the process.

“Getting good at something and sharing that you’re doing it can deepen the relationship with readers. That’s the kind of thing a new company will try to do,” he said.

Papers can engage readers in the project by announcing the tentpole topics in an editorial and asking for their input as the paper experiments.

“Readers know you have been shrinking,” he continued. “The idea that you are going to get better at something will be good for them to see.”

To increase effectiveness of coverage of a tentpole topic where staff expertise is limited, he suggested inviting contributor content or moving tentpole stories up higher on the page.

Content audit reports will measure success.

Broader successes will appear as changes are made in the

January: Gugliotto approaches API about working with Pioneer on content strategy.

February-April: Ongoing development of ideas and tools. API drafts reader survey,

completes content analysis of existing coverage, creates software

tagging tool.

May: Pioneer publishers and managing editors meet to dig into proposed

API ideas, Finberg programs reader survey into Survey Monkey.

June: Newspapers launch reader surveys.

July/August: API analyzes survey data.

August: Newspapers receive survey outcomes as passion indexes.

September: Publishers and managing editors meet with API to review indexes

and brainstorm ways to change.

October: Newspapers complete six-month plans for changes.

November/December: Via Skype, Gugliotto, Rosenstiel, Sonderman and Finberg will meet

with each newspaper’s publisher and managing editor to discuss the plans. newsroom, particularly changes that better align coverage with the community’s passions.

“Newsrooms are built on rituals,” Sonderman said.

To break those patterns he suggested, “move people and move processes every day.

Reassign beats. Change rewards.

Underscore accountability: Which tentpole does this story hit?”

API’s content analysis indicated readers have a deeper level of engagement with enterprise stories, so more enterprise sto-

ries on tentpole topics will also indicate success.

Experimenting is key

The presenters were clear that when things are changing rapidly, as they are today, applying what is known in general about innovation is imperative — we must learn as much from what works as from what doesn’t.

Rosenstiel stressed that while the reader survey and content analysis yielded useful data, it’s the staff’s creative approach to

engaging readers’ interests that will create success.

“It’s not a paint-by-numbers deal,” he said.

“It has to be a bottom-up movement with internal training so people understand why and how it works to increase the value of the paper.”

In her email, Hernandez agreed.

“The staff will be why this works. The staff will be instrumental in both the development of and execution of this plan.”

Chief Operating Officer The Pioneer News Group is looking for a determined and innovative Chief Operating Officer who expects success to help our talented group of publishers expand on their achievements.

We need someone who has walked a mile in our publishers’ shoes, who has successful experience with new and non-traditional print and digital initiatives. The person in this position should be more engaged in innovation and strategy than pushing another sales contest or special section. It’s a hands-on position; good follow-up skills, planning ability and full turn-key project implementation experience are a must. We’ve got plenty of opportunity with core product growth but also need someone that has a solid grasp on our digital future to help us continue to grow our total audience and monetize related opportunities.

The person in this position needs to possess excellent communication skills, not be anchored to tradition, and have a track record of creatively growing the top line by driving new initiatives through proven collaborative leadership experience.

At Pioneer, you can make a professional difference in an exceptional environment that’s hard to find. We’re a progressive family-owned media company that owns 24 daily and weekly newspapers in five states in the Great Northwest. Our corporate office is located in beautiful Seattle, WA. If you’re looking to hit a higher gear in your career with a special company and blow away criteria above, send your resume to: mberg@ pioneernewsgroup.com

10

NOVEMBER 2013

TWN

WNPA honors House speaker

Freedom’s Light award recognizes open access efforts

S

peaker of the House Frank Chopp was honored with the 2013 Walter C. Woodward Freedom’s Light Award for his key role this year in defeating legislative efforts to gut Washington’s open public records law.

The presentation by Bill Will, executive director of WNPA, included remarks by the 2012 honoree, Rowland Thompson of Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington.

Chopp, a Democrat from Seattle’s 43rd District, used his considerable clout as chairman of the House Rules Committee

to quash HB 1128, which would have handed government agencies the power to sue records requesters to prevent disclosure.

The bill was pushed hard by a powerful coalition of local government lobbyists, including the Association of Washington Cities, the Washington State Association of Counties, the Washington Public Ports Association and individual lobbyists representing cities around the state. The bill was passed unanimously by the House Local Government Committee.

Toby Nixon, a former legislator and president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, called HB 1128 potentially one of the most damaging assaults on open govSee CHOPP, page 11

Patrick J. Sullivan/Port Townsend Leader

Tribal representatives met with Washington Newspaper Publishers Association member journalists on Oct. 4 in Olympia for a special panel discussion. Pictured are (from left) Tim Ballew, chair of the Lummi Nation; Cynthia Iyall, chair of the Nisqually Indian Tribe; panel moderator Richard Walker, editor of the North Kitsap Herald, Poulsbo; Jackie Jacobs, publicist for the Quileute Nation; and W. Ron Allen, chair of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.

Views from Indian country Tribal officials counsel WNPA about coverage

by PATRICK SULLIVAN Port Townsend Leader

N

Jana Stoner / Northern Kittitas County Tribune, Cle Elum

Speaker of the Washintgton State House Frank Chopp, center, is flanked by WNPA Executive Director BIll Will, left, and Allied Daily Newspapers Executive Director Rowland Thompson, Chopp holds the 2013 Walter C. Woodward Freedom’s Light Award he received during the 126th annual WNPA Convention in Olympia.

Pacific ex-publisher earns Turnbull award

M

ike Dillon, recently retired from Pacific Publishing in Seattle, was announced as the 2013 recipient of the Miles Turnbull Master Editor-Publisher Award.

During the awards luncheon, Bill Will outlined Dillon’s many contributions to journalism in Washington state, most recently leading Pacific’s newspapers and serving for six years as a trustee and on numerous committees for WNPA. As chair of the Editorial Committee, Dillon provided WNPA member staffs opportunities to learn from award-winning reporters including Steve Miletich of the Seattle Times, 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Eli Sanders, and Mark Dowie, former editor and publisher of Mother Jones magazine.

Because Dillon was out of town during the convention, the plaque will be presented

at WNPA’s January board meeting in Olympia.

All member publishers are welcome to attend; for details, Mike Dillon contact Mae Waldron email mwaldron@ wnpa.com or call (206) 6343838 ext. 2.

Dillon stepped down June 28 as publisher of the weekly Queen Anne/ Magnolia News and the monthly Madison Park Times and City Living publications, all Pacific Publishing Company newspapers serving Seattle neighborhoods.

Dillon was with PPC for nearly 20 years, from 1992 until he retired in June 2013, excluding a two-year period in

See DILLON, page 11

ative American Indian tribal sovereignty, protocols and culture were discussed in a first-ever seminar of this type hosted at the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association’s convention on Oct. 4 in Olympia.

The 90-minute session’s focus was to help WNPA publishers, editors and reporters better understand how to “cover” tribes and tribal events.

Panelists were W. Ron Allen, chair of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in Clallam County since 1975; Cynthia Iyall, chair of the Nisqually Indian Tribe (Olympia) since 2006; Tim Ballew, chair of the Lummi Nation; and Jackie Jacobs, publicist for the Quileute Nation (La Push, Clallam County) and an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe.

The panel was chaired by Richard Walker, editor of the North Kitsap Herald (Poulsbo) and a correspondent for Indian Country Today Media Network.

“For the most part, the general public is very ignorant of Indian Country,” said Allen, a former president of the National Congress of American Indians.

Sovereignty is the most misunderstood issue, the tribal representatives said. Tribes are sovereign nations – meaning they have supreme, independent authority on their lands – and as co-signatories of treaties with the United States have a government-to-government relationship with the U.S. As independent, selfgoverning nations, tribes may

have different government management or protocols – for example, some may have their own police departments; and some, like Jamestown S’Klallam, may contract with a neighboring jurisdiction for law enforcement service.

“Each one of us are sovereign and each have our own way of doing things,” Iyall said.

Washington state is progressive, nationwide, in recognizing tribal sovereignty, Allen noted.

Allen is leading an effort to use the term “tribal citizens” instead of “tribal members” to reinforce sovereignty, not simply residency. A tribal citizen is also a United States citizen and beneficiary of the full rights that brings.

Iyall said a lot of time is spent reassessing, reaffirming and strengthening tribal sovereignty, which includes education of non-Indians about what it sovereignty means.

The Nisqually Canoe Family that provided a welcome at the WNPA convention luncheon is “an expression of our sovereignty” in that it welcomes visitors to Nisqually’s traditional territory, Iyall noted. The tribe’s canoe family, which participates in the annual Canoe Journey involving tribes from the U.S. and Canada, has done a great deal to expand public knowledge of tribal culture and customs.

Tribal protocols

Tribes have similar but unique protocols, which are important for members of the media, government and business sector to understand.

Jacobs, who handles publicity for the Quileute Nation in LaPush, talked about dealing with media requests in the wake of the “Twilight” motion picture series, which has drawn

thousands of visitors to the Olympic Peninsula in recent years. For the most part, visiting national and international media made the right moves: Call the tribal office and ask who can help set up interviews or site access. But, Jacobs said, one national television crew came to the reservation unannounced, and without permission, filmed the cemetery and tribal buildings as part of a segment on “Twilight.” The use of images of cemetery headstones — with the names of the interred visible — in a pop culture piece was “disrespectful” and shocked the community, she said. Jacobs brought it to the national entity’s attention, and the company apologized.

“Protocols are just being respectful that a tribe’s cultures are special and unique,” Allen noted.

How should someone from the media, or any group, go about learning those protocols?

Basically, call the tribe’s main office and ask whom to contact with your specific request.

“When it comes to engaging with tribal leadership and community, it’s about respect,” Allen said.

Terminology

There is terminology that is unique to Native culture. The clothing tribal members wear during ceremonies, and their dances and songs, often have spiritual aspects and may be passed down through families.

That’s why such clothing is called regalia, not “costumes,” and why dances and songs are not “performances.”

The people who power native canoes are pullers, not paddlers.

The terms Indian and Native American are both correct, although Allen said he prefers Indian or Native American See TRIBES, page 11

TWN

11

NOVEMBER 2013

WNPA installs new trustees

Etchey, Wagar named to board

D

onna Etchey and Michael Wagar were elected as trustees on the board of Washington Newspaper Publishers Association at last month’s WNPA convention in Olympia.

Etchey has been publisher of the North Kitsap Herald in Poulsbo since 2005 and, in 2012, was promoted to the same role at the Bainbridge Island Review.

She returns to the board after a two-year hiatus. In addition to serving as a trustee from 2009 to 2011, she also participated on WNPA’s Convention and Membership committees.

Etchey joined Sound Publishing in 1996 as the office manager at the Herald, her hometown newspaper.

She credits visits to her grandfather, who was a pressman at the News Tribune in Tacoma, as the inspiration for her career.

Etchey lives in Poulsbo with her husband, Jeff. They are parents to three young adults.

Wagar was named editor and publisher of the Nisqually Valley News in Yelm this past Feburary, succeeding Keven Graves, WNPA’s first vice president. Wagar is also

DILLON

Donna Michael Etchey Wagar the regional executive editor of the Chronicle in Centralia.

Wagar had been the executive editor of the Chronicle for 10 years when he left the paper in late 2011 to work as communications advisor for TransAlta, a multi-national power company with an electrical generating plant in Centralia.

“I missed journalism the year I was away like a fish out of water,” Wagar said, adding “I can’t think of a more entertaining, challenging and important career out there.”

Wagar’s projects at the Chronicle included a book compiled by the newspaper to document the area’s devastating flood of December 2007 and putting up one of the first paywalls for a daily newspaper in the Pacific Northwest.

Both newspapers are owned by Lafromboise Communications, Inc. Wagar was editor of the Argonaut at Edmonds Community College,

CHOPP

from page 10

the early 2000s, when he was publisher of three Sound Publishing weeklies, the Bremerton Patriot, Central Kitsap Reporter in Silverdale and Northwest Navigator.

Earlier in his career, Dillon had served as advertising manager of the Port Orchard Independent, Kitsap County Herald (Poulsbo) and Bainbridge Review.

Since Dillon’s retirement, Robert Munford, vice president of operations and general manager, assumed responsibility for both the newspaper and press divisions of PPC.

TRIBES

then sports editor for the Western Front and editor for Klipsun magazine at Western Washington University. He spent several years as a reporter for the Columbia Basin Herald in Moses Lake, where he also was promoted to managing editor. At the Kitsap Sun in Bremerton, he won a Blethen Award for coverage of diversity issues.

Wagar and his wife, Juanita Piña, live in Mossyrock and Yelm.

Etchey and Wagar succeed Josh Johnson of the Liberty Lake Splash, who resigned at the end of his term, and Mike Dillon of Pacific Publishing, Seattle, who retired this past June.

Continuing on the board are Imbert Matthee of the Waitsburg Times, Fred Obee of the Port Townsend Leader, Eric LaFontaine of the Othello Outlook, Stephen McFadden of the Ritzville-Adams County Journal, and Don Nelson of the Methow Valley News in Twisp.

The WNPA Executive Committee includes Bill Forhan of NCW Media, Leavenworth, president; Keven Graves of Whidbey News Group, Coupeville, first vice president; Lori Maxim of Sound Publishing, second vice president; and past president Jana Stoner of the Northern Kittitas County Tribune, Cle Elum.

from page 10

ernment to come before the legislature in many years.

“The idea that any records requester could be subjectively deemed ‘harassing,’ sued by an agency, and forced to either abandon their request or spend thousands of dollars in attorney fees to fight the allegation as well as all of the agency’s costs, is directly contrary to the fundamental principles of open and transparent government

embodied in I-276 and the Public Records Act,” he said.

Chopp, a Bremerton native, has served the 43rd district in the Washington House of Representatives since 1995. He became co-Speaker of the House in 1999 when the chamber had an even split between parties and began serving as the only Speaker in 2002. His tenure as Speaker is now the longest in the state’s history.

AUCTION

from page 1

Angie Evans, Nisqually Valley News, Yelm Assunta Ng, Northwest Asian Weekly, Seattle Bill & Carol Forhan, NCW Media, Leavenworth Bill Shaw, Regional Publisher, Sound Publishing Bill Will, WNPA Black Press, Victoria, B.C. Christine Fossett, Reflector, Battle Ground Cindy Rutstein, Woodinville Weekly Cliff Wright, Rim Publications Dani Fournier, Prosser Record-Bulletin, Grandview Herald Dave Gauger, Gauger Media Service, Raymond Debbie Berto, Issaquah Press, Sammamish Review, SnoValley Star Denis Law, Renton City Mayor, WNPA Past President Don Nelson, Methow Valley News, Twisp Everett Herald Frank DeVaul, DeVaul Publishing, Chehalis Frank Garred, WNPA Past President Gloria Fletcher, Sound Publishing, Bellevue Greg Farrar, Issaquah Press Imbert Matthee, Waitsburg Times Jana Stoner, Northern Kittitas County Tribune, Cle Elum Jerry Gay, Photographer Josh O’Connor, Sound Publishing, Bellevue Keven Graves, Whidbey News Group, Coupeville Kim Winjum, South Whidbey Record, Langley Leslie Kelly, Central

Kitsap Reporter and Bremerton Patriot Lori Maxim, Sound Publishing Mel Damski, LaConner Weekly News Michael Wagar, Nisqually Valley News, Yelm Michele Nedved, Newport Miner Mike Lewis, Lynden Tribune, Ferndale Record Mike Shepard, Seattle Times, WNPA Past President Patrick Sullivan, Port Townsend Leader Paul Archipley, Beacon Publishing, Mukilteo Roger Harnack, Omak Chronicle Rowland Thompson, Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington, Olympia Rudi Alcott, Federal Way Mirror Sandy Stokes, LaConner Weekly News Sarah Arney, Stanwood/ Camano News Sarah Duran, F5 Networks Scott Freshman, Monroe Monitor Scott Wilson, Port Townsend Leader Skamania County Pioneer, Stevenson Stanwood Camano News Stephen Barrett, Sound Publishing, Bellevue Stephen McFadden, Ritzville-Adams County Journal Steve Perry, Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles Terry Hamberg, Northern Kittitas County Tribune, Cle Elum

from page 10

Indian. Why? Because anyone born in America can be considered a native American.

Also, there are Native Alaskans (in Alaska, the term Indian is not appropriate) and Native Hawaiians, Allen noted, so Native American Indian seems the best.

“If you call us ‘’Skins,’ we’re going to have a problem,” Allen noted.

PTHS Redskins

Allen noted that the Jamestown S’Klallam, for nearly 20 years, have been part of a discussion involving the Port Townsend High School athletic team name of “Redskins.” The term has been in use at PTHS since 1928, with a logo depicting a Plains Indian–style chief in a feathered headdress.

Last year, the Port Townsend School District Board of Directors created a mascot study committee and last July, the board unanimously accepted the committee’s finding that the name should be retired. This is the last school year the term “Redskins” is in use; no decision has yet been announced on how the district intends to select a new name.

“We did pressure [the school district] to remove the mascot name of Redskins,” Allen said of the “very controversial” change.

Although he understands that many PTHS alumni are proud of the name and do not believe it to be racist, he said it is.

“Our argument is you are not honoring a unique indigenous culture,” Allen said, asking if it would be OK to have a school or athletic team name that singles out a culture, such as those of blacks or Asians.

Allen also acknowledged that not all Indians feel the same way: Witness the Wellpinit High School Redskins, a school on the Spokane Indian Reservation that is proud of its team name.

Allen also alluded to an Indian family that has lived in Port Townsend for years and have been vocal in supporting the PTHS Redskins name. However, he noted that family is from a tribe that does not have “ceded territory” rights over East Jefferson County, as do the three S’Klallams tribes.

The Jamestown S’Klallams take the lead for tribal concerns in the Port Townsend area.

The same protocol applies to anyone who may be of Indian blood; the view of an individual Indian is secondary to the view of the tribe that has ceded jurisdiction in the specific area, Allen explained.

“The [Indians] who are not offended [by names like Redskins], their self-esteem is fine,” Allen said, but the overall tribal focus must be to lift up everyone, and that means representing people who are offended by such names and logos.

At the national level, Allen supports the effort to pressure

the owner of the Washington Redskins National Football League franchise to change its team name.

“Tribes are trying to reverse images,” Allen said, be it the drunken Indian, or the Indian home with a broken-down car in the yard. The image of a warcry-whooping Indian “is an old image that we want to change.”

In an interview after the panel session, Allen said his tribe does not favor Chiefs or Braves as a replacement for Redskins. He repeated what he had said at a school district meeting: Names or symbols like ravens, bears or eagles have deep, powerful meanings in Indian culture, and would be more respectful and appropriate if the intention is to honor the local Native American Indian people.

Allen also noted that his tribe has pledged to help the Port Townsend School District with the costs associated with changing the team name and logo, which could include repainting the gymnasium floor and buying new uniforms.

Coal ports

Fishing and the fishing economy are key issues for Western Washington tribes, in particular, said Lummi leader Ballew. For his tribe, any degradation of these resources represents a generational “breach of trust” that cannot be allowed; specifically

the degradation would violate Lummi’s treaty rights to marine resources. That’s one reason the ongoing debate about allowing a coal train terminal in Western Washington, possibly on or near tribal land, is such a big deal.

“We can and will manage our resources” for the future of children and grandchildren, Ballew said.

“Protecting your treaty rights and your resources” should be each tribe’s priority, Allen noted.

Gaming

Tribal gaming (not gambling, Allen noted, because Indian culture has had gaming for centuries, long before the “gambling” culture exploded in Las Vegas, etc.) has changed tribes for the better, Allen said.

Revenue from gaming (the Lummi and Tulalip tribes were the first in Washington state to negotiate before the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act) has allowed tribes to improve so many things, Allen noted, from health care to education. Gaming has also generated disposable income that helps each tribe diversify its local economy.

Even tribes without a casino – there are several on the Olympic Peninsula – make money by leasing their allocation of gaming machines to tribes with casinos.

“The promise that is in [state and federal] treaties can never be upheld,” Allen said, so the tribes need something else to secure

a financial future. In the last 20 years, gaming revenue has been critical in helping tribes become more self-sufficient and selfsustaining.

Sacred traditions

Traditions, and the sacraments and values that surround those traditions, are part of the overall tribal community and individual families. That is why some ceremonies, even if staged on non-tribal ground, such as a Canoe Journey landing at Fort Worden State Park beach in Port Townsend, are considered personal and private – no video, audio or other social media use is allowed without permission.

Individual permission from the family involved is required, noted Jacobs, just another sign of being aware and respectful of Indian culture.

Iyall talked about the Nisqually Indian Tribe having a relatively small and new reservation near Olympia, and the ongoing process to educate surrounding government entities and communities about tribal culture and businesses.

Several panelists talked about the need to sustain a consistent message from tribes relating to sovereignty, culture and traditions.

“We’ve been around for thousands of years and we’re not going anywhere,” Iyall said.

Reprinted with permission.

12

NOVEMBER 2013

126TH ANNUAL WNPA CONVENTION

TWN

LEFT: Northern Kittitas County Tribune Publisher Jana Stoner (left) and Associate Publisher Terry Hamberg celebrate the Tribune’s second place award in General Excellence, Group II. BELOW RIGHT: Judy and Frank DeVaul of DeVaul Publishing, Chehalis, pause during a break.

BELOW LEFT: Publisher Donna Etchey and Editor Richard Walker of the North Kitsap Herald, Poulsbo, smile with their secondplace Community Service plaque. BOTTOM LEFT: WNPA Executive Director Bill Will congratulates Issaquah Press Publisher Debbie Berto on the Press’s first place win in General Excellence, Group IV. CENTER: Megan Hansen of the Whidbey News Group, Coupeville, poses with the Nexus 7 Tablet she won from WNPA. RIGHT: Adpay brochures and Allied Law Group flashlights at the luncheon tables.

Photos by Jana Stoner /Northern Kittitas County Tribune, Cle Elum

TWN

NOVEMBER 2013

126TH ANNUAL WNPA CONVENTION LEFT: At the Better Newspaper Contest Awards Dinner, Nancy and Jack Darnton of the Anacortes American chat with tablemates. BELOW LEFT/ RIGHT: Nisqually Indian Tribe Chair Cynthia Iyall introduces the Nisqually Canoe Family, who welcomed WNPA members in song during the awards luncheon. BOTTOM LEFT: Rep. Frank Chopp, left, holds the 2013 Walter C. Woodward Freedom’s Light Award. At right is Rowland Thompson, the 2012 Woodward honoree and executive director of Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington. BOTTOM RIGHT: As WNPA’s second vice president, Lori Maxim, standing, chaired the Convention Planning Committee. She is Vice President, West Sound, at Sound Publishing. On her left is Scott Frank, editor of the Marysville Globe. Signs thanking the BNC Dinner sponsors, SmallTownpapers, Sound Publishing, and Adpay, decorated tables.

13

14

NOVEMBER 2013

126TH ANNUAL WNPA CONVENTION

TWN

ABOVE: John Marling of Pulse Research shows his ideas to Carol Forhan, NCW Media, Leavenworth. ABOVE RIGHT: Ryan Holterhoff of the Washington Potato Commission, left, talks with Patrick Sullivan of the Port Townsend Leader.

RIGHT: Gary Schwartzkopf of MediaSpan Group explains his product.

BELOW: Adpay’s Deb Dreyfuss-Tuchman talks with Colleen Armstrong of the Islands’ Sounder, Eastsound.

ABOVE: SmallTownPapers President Paul Jeffko, left, and Andy Taylor of Sound Publishing. BELOW: Methow Valley News, Twisp, donated this gift basket to the WNPA Foundation auction. LEFT: At Saturday’s internet session, Sequim Gazette Editor Mike Dashiell takes notes during Skyped remarks by Associate Professor Sue Bullard of University of Nebraska-Lincoln. On Dashiell’s left are Better Newspaper Contest Awards tabs donated by the Wenatchee World.