The lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County
circuit court on July 25, outlines public records requests submitted by the
union in June, September and December of 2012. According to the union, the port
responded to the requests by sending the union an “arbitrary and excessive
estimate” of about $200,000 – to be paid upfront -- to identify and locate the
requested records.
The $200,000 quote covered only what the port
labeled as ‘first phase’ costs and did not include ‘second phase’ costs of
attorney and paralegal fees to review and segregate records between exempt and
non-exempt information before production of any documents, the union’s lawsuit
contends.
Also according to the ILWU, the port asserted
it could not provide an estimate of such ‘second phase’ fees other than to say
that it could be a substantial amount.
The lawsuit maintains that the port’s
treatment of the ILWU’s public records requests were “motivated by
discrimination, retaliation and hostility against” the union because of the ILWU’s
participation in ongoing litigation involving the port.
“Oregonians have a right to know whether
the Port of Portland is irresponsibly managing the biggest public port in our
state,” ILWU Coast Committeeman Leal Sundet, a member of ILWU Local 8 in
Portland, said. “The port’s lack of transparency is inexcusable.”
In its legal filing, the union asks for,
among other things, that the court issue an order declaring the port’s handling
of the union’s public records requests to be neglectful, in bad faith, and in
violation of the Oregon Public Records Act.
The union also asks that the court order the
port to waive or substantially reduce its fees and compel the port to produce
to the ILWU the records requested in June, September and December 2012.
The Port of Portland has responded to the
lawsuit by saying it has abided by state public records law and that the high
fees were due to the broad scope of the information requests, which the port
estimates would take hundreds of hours and a large allocation of port resources
to compile.
The port says it eventually lowered the $200,000
preliminary quote to $50,000 and offered to set up a payment plan, an offer the
union has yet to respond to.
