INTRODUCTION

Thank you for joining the WAPRO 2023 Fall Conference. We hope you had a great expereience while gaining valuable information. 

Please provide your feedback on the conference and future conferences by filling out this short survey.

If you are interested in getting either CLE or CMC/MMC credits, please visit our CE desk near registration to sign up for those.  

Speakers at WAPRO conferences occasionally discuss available tools and software that can assist entities in responding to public records requests. WAPRO’s mission is educational, and WAPRO does not endorse any particular software or tool.  The views and opinions expressed by the speakers at WAPRO conferences are those of the individual speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of WAPRO or of any entities the speakers represent.

AGENDA & MATERIALS

CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS

To receive your CMC/MMC certification, pelase complete this survey by November 17th, 2023.

CMC/MMC Survey

CMC/MMC Credits:

The WAPRO single-day education program scheduled for October 19, 2023, has been approved for 1 CMC education or 1 MMC advanced education point per four educational hours as follows:

845-945 am

Compassion Fatigue – 1hr.

945-1115 am

Case Law/Legal Update CMC ONLY–1.5hrs.

1230-145 pm – Concurrent – 1.25hrs.

Attorney-Client Privilege CMC ONLY

JLARC Public Records Data Collection CMC ONLY

GovQA

Body Worn Camera Redactions

2-315 pm – Concurrent – 1.25hrs.

Setting Up a Body worn Camera

Premium eDiscovery – Tips & Tricks

Handle with Care

Total CMC hours = 5

Total CMC points = 1.25 CMC education points with a completed learning assessment.

Total MMC hours = 3.5

Total MMC points = 0.88 MMC advanced education points with a completed learning assessment.

SPEAKERS

Mandi Caldwell

Mandi Caldwell has been with the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office as their BWC ID Technician since October 2021. Previously, she was with the Whatcom County Prosecutor’s Office as a legal assistant for 20 years.

The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office started their BWC program in September 2021 and since that time, our agency has learned a lot of lessons which I will talk about in my presentation.

Tara Collings

Tara Collings began working for the Seattle Police Department Legal Unit in 2016, where she currently holds the position of Legal Section Manager. Tara has been with the Department since the inception of the Body-Worn Video Program, and over the past six years, she has processed Body-Worn Videos for Criminal & Civil Discovery and Litigation, and Public Disclosure Requests.

Morgan Damerow

Morgan Damerow serves as the Attorney General’s Office Local Government Public Records Act Consultant. In this position, Morgan provides guidance to local governments on responding to public records requests, identifying resources to develop or update technology related to public records and helping agencies respond to requests properly and efficiently. He joined the AGO in 2003 and has represented the state in numerous PRA cases as well as labor and employment matters. In 2018 he took on the creation of the AGO’s Local Government PRA Consultation Program. Morgan frequently provides training to local governments and speaks to conference participants on the Public Records Act. He is a 1997 graduate from the University of Montana, School of Law.

Sarah Doar

Sarah Doar is a Legal Consultant with Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC), where she provides general legal guidance to Washington’s local government entities on all matters of municipal law. She presents extensively on Washington’s Public Records Act, including a popular “PRA Deep Dive” series and “PRA Basics & More” trainings. Sarah is the author of the chapter Governing in Glass Houses: Protection of Third-Party Private Information and Confidential Records in the ABA publication Ensuring an Informed Public, Chumbler and Dunlap, eds. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Case Western Reserve University and a J.D. with a certificate in environmental and land use law from Florida State University College of Law.

Michael Earley

Michael Earley was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Notre Dame, where he completed his Bachelors in English. After graduation, Michael joined a volunteer teaching core at Notre Dame and through this program received his Masters in Education while teaching high school in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

After five years of teaching, Michael began taking psychology courses and working in psychology research hoping to return to school to secure a PhD in Clinical Psychology. In 2013, Michael graduated with his doctoral degree from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where he focused on researching substance abuse, post traumatic stress disorder, and mindfulness interventions for anxiety disorders.

After a brief stint working for VA Puget Sound, Michael began his private practice in Anacortes, WA, working with individuals, couples, and groups. Although still working part time in private practice, Dr. Earley now works primarily as the embedded mental health provider of the Bellingham Police Department, coordinating the department’s wellness and peer support programs while developing novel programming and establishing a vetted provider network, providing officers with a cadre of available mental health professionals should they need resources and support. Michael has been married for 20 years, has three daughters, and spends his free time hiking, skiing, trail running, and wishing the Mariners were more successful.

Anna Heinrichs

Anna (rhymes with “Donna”) started their career in records management in 2006, with the City of Mukilteo. There they shepherded the transition from paper to electronic records for the fire department, coordinating with other EMS departments in Snohomish County. This also began their career as a public records officer, learning the ins and outs of both PRA and HIPAA regulations. Moving to King County in 2015, Anna worked their way up through Metro Transit’s vehicle maintenance and HR divisions, and a year-long stint as the PRO for the KC Permitting division, to land in a their current role as Laserfiche System Administrator with the KC Department of Human Resources. Responsible for the development, training, implementation, and management of digital personnel records for over 15,000 active employees, Anna has trained over 300 HR and administrative staff in how to identify and handle paper and electronic records, use a new system (in a remote environment), and advance the County’s efforts to increase accessibility and equity. Along with the massive transition of paper to electronic records, they have developed tools that provide secure, consistent, and documented sharing of records to PROs, supervisors, recruiters, etc., act as a PRO for countywide COVID-related records requests, consult on policy development and implementation, and are a champion for records management best practices in all disciplines.

Geneva Johnston

Geneva joined JLARC in 2018 and took over JLARC’s data reporting projects in January 2023 as a Data Reporting and Visual Communications Analyst. Geneva oversees JLARC’s annual lodging tax expenditures and public records data reporting.

Kirsty Jones

Kirsty Jones is the Records/ID Administrator for the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office, where she oversees all things related to records and property/evidence, from creation and retention to disposition as well as public records requests.  She’s developed a broad overview of records and information management in the public sector.

A self-described “records nerd,” she has long been fascinated by records management and its impact on history. Had she known you could get a degree in RIM, she probably would have! Instead, she came to the records world via emergency 911 dispatching after a brief stint in adult education. 

Kirsty received her MEd in higher education as well as a BA in history from the University of North Texas. She is a Certified Records Manager, (CRM), Information Governance Professional (IGP) and Certified Information Professional (CIP).  She is also a Certified Public Records Officer (CPRO) in the state of Washington and holds the GARA certificate from NAGARA.

Sarah Mack

Sarah Spierling Mack is a partner in the School Districts group at Pacifica Law Group. In her practice, she provides legal advice and assistance to administrators, superintendents, and School Boards regarding public records, legal affairs, risk management, contracts, and board policies and procedures. She assists administrators in implementing compliance and preventative measures through the interpretation, projection and application of legal trends; works to ensure that districts comply with applicable legal constraints and requirements; provides training in student rights, employee rights and obligations, and evaluations, amongst other issues; supports Human Resources with rights investigations; responds to charges from the Office for Civil Rights, EEOC, and Washington Human Rights Commission; and defends litigation.

Prior to joining Pacifica, Sarah was General Counsel for Everett Public Schools and also served as the District’s Public Records Officer. Ms. Mack has also worked as the career law clerk for United States District Court for the Western District of Washington Chief Judge Ricardo S. Martinez, and was a principal at Patterson Buchanan Fobes & Leitch, Inc. P.S. in Seattle, WA. At Patterson Buchanan, Ms. Mack represented both public entities and private clients, with an emphasis on representing school districts and other municipal entities, including fire districts, cities and counties. Ms. Mack litigated and advised on a variety of legal issues, including personal injury, sexual abuse, wrongful death, catastrophic injuries, civil rights, discrimination and employment law. Ms. Mack routinely practiced in both state and federal courts around the country and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

Anne Masias

As the Public Records Officer I am grateful to oversee the Public Records Unit at the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. The entirety of my 11 years of state service has been with the department. Prior to DFW I have 25 years working in law office & executive administration.

The DFW PRU’s goal is to promote and facilitate transparency while complying with the legal requirements of the Public Records Act. We are often the only direct contact the public has with the agency. It is our goal to provide the highest level of customer service, while supporting the work of staff.

Kelly McDermott

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Evergreen State College in 2011 with an emphasis in Environmental Science. I began working for the state of Washington in November 2014 as a Forms and Records Analyst for the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board. This is where I started my career in public records and records management. In December 2018 I took on a brand-new position at the

Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife as their first Electronic Search Specialist along with coordinating public records requests for the Fish program. The position focuses on conducting agency wide electronic searches for records responsive to public records requests, discovery/litigation, and investigations. I participated in our agency’s O365 implementation project in 2019, agency offboarding project and work closely with others in our IT department to ensure we are following legal requirements. I have attended every WAPRO since 2015. My current focus is Premium eDiscovery and process improvement documentation.

Ramsey Ramerman

Ramsey Ramerman is a deputy city attorney with the City of Everett, where he works on open government and First Amendment issues, advises the police department on records laws and works on general municipal law questions and disputes. Ramsey also advises and defends other municipalities in PRA and First Amendment litigation through his firm Ramerman Law Office PLLC.

He is one of the founders and the first President of the Washington Association of Public Records Officers and served eight years on the state Sunshine Committee. In addition, he is the co-editor-in-chief of the Second Edition of the WSBA PRA Deskbook and co-authored two chapters in the deskbook.

Prior to working for the City of Everett, Ramsey worked at Foster Pepper PLLC. Ramsey graduated with high honors from the University of Washington School of Law in 2000.

Sean Reichard

Sean Reichard joined the Washington State Archives in November 2021 as a Records Consultant at the Olympia, WA branch. In May 2023, he became a Senior Records Consultant based out of the Northwest Archives Branch in Bellingham, WA. Originally from Minnesota, he previously worked with the Wisconsin Historical Society as a library services assistant in their offsite preservation facility. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, cooking, hiking, swimming, and nature photography.

Krystal Townsend

Krystal Townsend has been serving in local government since 1999. In 2004 she was appointed as the City of Federal Way’s Deputy City Clerk and it was then that she fell in love with the world of public records requests. Since 2015 she has served as the Deputy City Clerk/Public Records Officer for the City of Kennewick. After 18 years, Krystal continues to find public records requests challenging and rewarding. She especially enjoys the evolution of public records case law and learning new, best practices from the training sessions she attends. One of her favorite responsibilities is incorporating the skills she learns from WAPRO, the Attorney General’s Office and MRSC to create engaging training presentations to assist her coworkers in Kennewick. Krystal is convinced that with the right perspective and tools, her team members will learn to love public records requests almost as much as she does!

Jay Schulkin

Jay Schulkin is a partner at Porter Foster Rorick LLP, where he advises school districts on a wide range of legal issues, with a particular emphasis on the Public Records Act, labor and employment law, and student discipline, and defends school districts on these and other issues in administrative and court settings. Jay frequently presents to school district public records officers and other school employees on the PRA.

Jennifer Steele

Jennifer Steele is Public Records Counsel for the Attorney General’s Office. As Public Records Counsel, Jennifer provides expertise to AAGs regarding client advice and litigation strategy. She advises and serves as a resource to the AGO on public records issues, provides trainings, and represents the AGO in PRA litigation involving the AGO. Jennifer has served in the AGO for over 14 years, during which she has consistently worked in the public records arena. Jennifer previously worked in the Consumer Protection and Licensing and Administrative Law divisions. Prior to joining the AGO Jennifer was a clerk at the Washington State Supreme Court. Jennifer attended Syracuse University where she was on the Women’s Varsity Rowing Team. She received her J.D. from Seattle University where, upon learning there was no rowing team, she became an editor for the Seattle Journal for Social Justice.

Sara Di Vittorio

Sara Di Vittorio is an Assistant General Counsel and the Public Records Officer for Snohomish County PUD No. 1. Sara is also a Partner at Cedar Law, PLLC. Sara has served for 20 years as an attorney in Washington’s public sector including four years in her current role at the PUD, seven years as a Snohomish County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, and nine years as an Assistant Attorney General handling public records requests, advice, and litigation. Sara has an extensive background in providing training on the Public Records Act, having given approximately 250 classes to government agencies and organizations throughout the state. Sara was appointed by Governor Inslee to the Public Records Exemption Accountability Committee where she served for five years. Sara was also a member of the legislature’s Public Records Task Force and has assisted in the drafting of multiple pieces of legislation, including testifying at the legislature. Sara was also invited to present to the legislature on the Public Records Act and its exemptions when the legislature was contemplating how the PRA applies to them. Sara is a two-time graduate of the University of Washington (B.A. and J.D.).