The Metropolitan King County Council today unanimously adopted legislation creating the King County Public Records Committee. This committee will focus on protecting the personal information of county residents by ensuring that public documents containing private information are safeguarded.

Last year Councilmember Reagan Dunn discovered social security numbers on public documents posted on King County’s Web site. His investigation netted the social security numbers of many high-profile King County residents, including those of statewide elected officials and former Seattle Supersonics, Seahawks, and Mariners.

“I was shocked to learn last year that King County was posting the personal information of our citizens on the King County Recorder’s Web site,” said Dunn, sponsor of the legislation. “The Public Records Committee will develop and recommend policy concerning the handling of public documents, particularly online documents to prevent a similar situation in the future.”

The creation of this committee is a result of legislation sponsored by Dunn and approved by the Council last year that removed deed of trust documents containing social security numbers from the Recorder’s Web site.

“The King County Council recognized the danger and quickly passed my legislation for a ‘quick-fix’ by removing these documents from the Internet,” said Dunn. “We have now created a committee that will comprehensively look at how King County handles its public documents.”

One of the first tasks of the Public Records Committee will be to develop a plan to safely repost online the documents that were taken down after they were discovered to contain social security numbers. The plan is scheduled to be presented to the Council by March 1, 2008. The Committee will also be responsible for assisting in the development of County priorities and guidelines in protecting personal data when records are posted on County Web sites.

“With the passage of this motion, King County shows that it has come full circle in the way that it handles public documents,” said Dunn. “It is the responsibility of our leaders in government to protect the security of information we collect from our citizens.”

The Public Records Committee will be chaired by the director of Records, Elections, and Licensing Services, and will include representatives from the County Council, the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the Sheriff’s Office, the Assessor’s Office, the Department of Judicial Administration, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Office of Information Resource Management.

Councilmember Dunn represents District 9 in King County which includes the cities of Bellevue, Newcastle, Renton, Maple Valley, Covington, Kent, Black Diamond, and Enumclaw and portions of unincorporated King County.

Read more about this legislation on the King County Council’s LEGISEARCH system.
Type in "2007-0154"