LONG BEACH – After some hesitation on the part of Ocean Beach Hospital and Public Utility District No. 2 of Pacific County, the last of the requested public salaries are in, which point out the highest paid on the Peninsula.

Topping the list of local salaries, over all others requested, including city and county officials, is that of OBH CEO James Robertson, Jr., whose annual salary is $126,500.

The only other local official making anywhere near Robertson’s salary is PUD General Manager Doug Miller, who makes $102,600. Next in line is Ocean Beach School District Superintendent Tom Lockyer, who earns an annual salary of $85,900.

Other PUD officials are also in the top wage-earning percentile for the Peninsula, and include PUD Chief of Engineering Jason Dunsmoor at $83,076; PUD Finance Manager Doug Streeter at $62,244; PUD Customer Service Manager Jim Dolan at $61,284; PUD IT Director Marc Wilson at $59,244; and PUD Auditor Renae Powell at $43,896.

When first requested for salary information, PUD officials such as Streeter, balked at the request. Miller then claimed not to have the information, and finally made it available late last week.

Both OBH and PUD failed to have access to salary information on-hand, although both did eventually make the requested salaries available. OBH complied within the legal time period.

According to Washington Newspaper Publishing Association Executive Director Diana Kramer, salary information from any and all public entities is public information, which should be produced in a timely manner.

“I don’t know if it is ignorance or arrogance, but one would hope that a public agency that uses tax dollars should recognize its obligation to conduct its business publicly,” said Kramer. “It doesn’t matter it if is a local city council, school board, fire district or a local PUD – they are all still required to conduct their business openly. It is what the public expects and what the law requires.”

Kramer said that salaries of public officials or employees should be made available upon request, and that lawsuits have paved the way to make the information available in Washington state.

She said that the normal time frame to expect information such as salaries is within five business days, since it does not normally take a vast amount of time to prepare such data. She said in cases where it is obvious that data will take time to research and prepare, such as older data, a public entity can cite such a circumstance and provide a reasonable amount of time needed to prepare the requested information.

According to Kramer, in general, there are limited exceptions to disclosure of public official or employee information, such as some medical information. She pointed out that without citing an exemption, the public entity must release the information requested.

“If they just simply refuse to supply the information, they can be sued,” said Kramer. “They can be sued by whoever is requesting the information and if they are victorious in court, the requestor can be reimbursed for all court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.”

Kramer cited a recent case in Chelan County, where a Chelan County Superior Court judge awarded The Wenatchee World $12,537 in attorney costs and penalties in the newspaper’s public records lawsuit against the Chelan County PUD.

Judge Lesley Allan on March 27 ruled that the Chelan PUD must pay $6,757 in attorneys’ fees, half of The World’s legal costs in its legal fight to gain access to documents related to privatizing the public utility.

Allan also penalized the PUD $20 per day, a total of $5,780, for the 289-day period that the PUD did not turn over non-exempt records requested by the newspaper.

The judge ruled in September that all but three of the 162 documents requested by the newspaper were exempt from disclosure under the state’s Open Public Records Act.