Andy

I do respect your opinion and I like the way that you have addressed this issue. With that being said, I must say in all truthfulness that I will not delete this web site as a reference or my thread.

And this is the main reason why I will not delete it; I firmly believe that any person who works for a "private" party is truly entitled to have full protection on who knows what his income may be. The only persons who should have that information are his employer, or the person who pays the person their salary. Likewise, when a person is a state employee, he should abide by the same rule.

Now this is where some people, especially the people that work or have very close friends may differ. But this the reality; we "the people" are these peoples employers and "we the people" are entitled to see exactly what "we" are paying each and every one of "our" employees. I known that you do not, and will not fill this way, buy I believe there are more that do fell this way then those who don't. That is exactly why EVERY state employee has been told that everything they do or say unless it is attorney privileged information, is always public information.

Since you are such a good supporter of our "laws" I an a little surprised that you have taken such a stand on this issue. The law specifically states that we are entitled to know and have such information. That is why I do not understand your current position on this issue, since you always support whatever the law says is legal.

Am I wrong?

It really makes sense if you truly understand that "we" are the "states" employees' employer. There is no other legal way that one can say it, other then what I have said.

I have no bones to pick with anyone personally who works for WDFW! Just ask anyone who knows me there! What ever I may say here, I have said it to them in front of their face. So this was not ever meant to be get a "get even" with any WDFW employee. It was only meant to give "the people" their legal right to know what, and who they are paying "their" employee.

The same people will continue to make stupid personal attacks to prove their own point of views, but that just make them look even lower in others eyes. I have attempted not do that, but being human, I sometimes fail.

So Andy, thanks for taking the time to write a very well written disagreeing point without getting personal like a few others have done. With that being said, I have received permission form the Web master of the site to post their entire email to me. Maybe some of you can understand why they have maintained this site and stop making personal attacks on others! That is my hope anyways, so here it is:
" Cowlitzfisherman,

My name is Louis bloom, the "webmaster" of the Washington state employees salaries site. Here's some of my thoughts on the outdoor forum about state salaries.

I'm amazed at the amount of traffic at these forums. My website visits are usually around 500 people on weekdays and 200 on weekends. There were a minimum of 250 extra visits on Friday and 200 extra on Saturday, because of the outdoor forum.

I started the salaries list in 1996, as an "oddball public service" hobby. I had a close relative that was fired from his Washington state dshs job after he whistleblew about his boss hiring his mistress. I figure that publishing the names and salaries of public employees might reduce the cronyism and nepotism in the hiring and promoting of government employees.

I think that government provides a fairer, cheaper, and better service than private deregulated businesses will. I think most public employees are well compensated (except beginning teachers), and i don't believe comparable private sector jobs are available to public employees.

I feel that one of the best things about our governments, (local, state, federal) is the freedom of information laws. I'm amazed that my government responds to these requests, even though it may not like the information to be public.

I'll request the Tacoma PUD salary list, with the next batch of freedom of information requests I send out.

You can add any or all of my comments to the outdoor forum. I try to be open and above board about who I am. People will throw back any perceived double standard or hypocrisies, and they should.

Louis Bloom
manaco@whidbey.net"

This truly is a person who I can respect!

Cowlitzfisherman