As city communication moves online, Wenatchee preserves its public record

WENATCHEE — A city announcement posted online can change with a few keystrokes. A sentence can be edited. A post can be updated. In some cases, information can disappear altogether.

As more public communication moves into those spaces, the City of Wenatchee has quietly built a system to make sure those changes don’t disappear with it.

For at least five years, the city has used an automated archiving platform to capture its website and social media activity, preserving not only what is posted, but how it changes over time.

For City Clerk Tammy McCord, the purpose is straightforward.

The system helps the city respond more efficiently to public records requests, but more importantly, it ensures that those records are preserved as part of the public record.

In Washington, social media posts created as part of government business are considered public records under state law. In fact, all 50 states have some version of the same rule, although retention time requirements may vary between states.

Posts made by a government agency are considered part of the official record, McCord said, meaning they must be retained just like emails, documents or other forms of communication tied to public business.

To meet that requirement, the city archives its website along with several Facebook pages used for public communication, including the City of Wenatchee and Wenatchee Police Department pages, using a system called Pagefreezer Archiving Suite.

The system captures content in its original form and tracks edits or deletions, creating a searchable record that staff can access when responding to requests from the public.

The approach reflects a broader shift in how local governments manage information.

Where official communication once lived primarily in printed notices and formal documents, it now often appears first online, in posts designed to be timely, flexible and easily updated.

That flexibility, McCord said, also creates a responsibility.

Without a system in place, those updates can become difficult to track, especially over time or across multiple platforms.

By archiving those changes automatically, the city is working to maintain a clear record of how information is shared with the public, even as the format continues to evolve.

Although McCord said she has seen very few requests — in the single digits during her time in the City Clerk’s office — anything a public agency posts online can quickly become part of the public record.

The system is one way the city is working to ensure those records remain accessible, even as the way they are created continues to change.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media