Let me start by saying I don’t know Jon Ammons at the state Public Disclosure Commission. Never met him. But however much  they’re paying this guy, it’s not enough.

Here’s why. At 3:47 p.m. today I e-mailed the PDC asking for the personal financial statements filed by 18 holders of public office in North Central Washington, everybody from judges to commissioners. It’s an election thing. I want a window into our politicians’ financial situations.

After I was sending the e-mail, I did a little guessing on how long it would take to get a response from a state bureacracy after sending an e-mail to a general address. The images of a note, bottle and the ocean crossed my mind. The agency is in Olympia, I’m in Wenatchee. Nobody there knows me.

I figure it would be great to get a first e-mail back by Wednesday acknowledging my existence. If I received the filings by the end of the week, I’d be pretty darn pleased.

At 4:21 p.m., Ammons, PDC office assistant,  writes back. He says he’s working on the requests — and hopes to have them to me by 5 p.m.

!

By 4:36 p.m. I had them all.

Now if Ammons would only crack open these documents and note possible interesting figures that could turn into news reports …