Paul Jacob: Another audit, please

Paul Jacob is a veteran transparency advocate and a senior policy advisor at the Sam Adams Alliance. Jacob’s column, Common Sense, highlights a suspicious reaction from Diane Oberquell, a Thurston County commissioner, when she found out Washington state officials were checking on the transparency of local government. From the column:

Last fall, Washington state auditors conducted a government performance audit to see how responsive local officials are to requests for public records.

According to the newspaper The Olympian, this Commissioner Oberquell — I guess it’s a coincidence that her name sorta rhymes with “overkill” — this Oberquell person went “ballistic” when she found out about the audit. Claimed it was an uncalled for “sting” operation.

Hey, if that’s what it was, so be it. Let’s have more of these sting operations.

The irony is that a draft report of the audit has just been released, and it seems Thurston County got an okay assessment. Not the best, not the worst. Middling. So why all the defensiveness?

Hmmm . . . seems mighty suspicious to me. Time for another audit?

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