As we noted in Morning Fizz this morning when we wrote about WSDOT's curiously timed video release, it's hardly standard operating procedure for public agencies to release responses to public records requests to the general public.

Last night, Washington State Department of Transportation viaduct project director Rob Paananen explained that the agency had no choice but to release an alarming video (they posted it on their website) showing the viaduct collapsing in an earthquake because, he wrote, "we received a public disclosure request" for the video.

Meanwhile,  WSDOT still hasn't released any of the documents to the general public that revealed WSDOT skewed its numbers to favor the tunnel, which I wrote about last week. The timing of today's release—one week before the mayor's race—seems more than just coincidental: One candidate, Joe Mallahan, supports the tunnel; the other, Mike McGinn, opposes it.

The request was made more than a month ago, on September 23—by anti-tunnel activist Elizabeth Campbell, who is suing the state to stop the tunnel from moving forward. (Another records request by Campbell resulted in the trove of documents that led to my story last week). Campbell says WSDOT told her it would take between six and eight months to fulfill her request, which included other documents. The first time she saw the video (or even knew WSDOT was making it available) was on KING-5 TV, which aired the video last night. WSDOT still has not responded directly to the release.

She said she heard about the video in passing, and that she didn't "really think anything of it" when she made the request. "I don't know that I would have thought it was earth-shaking" if WSDOT had released it to her before posting it on the agency's official blog, she says. "It doesn't necessarily feed into my agenda" to create panic about the need to move forward replacing the viaduct immediately, she adds.

Campbell thinks the video was released to coincide with the mayor's race. She notes that than two weeks ago, pro-tunnel Gov. Christine Gregoire endorsed Mallahan. Four days later, the city council passed a memorandum of understanding with the state saying they'd support the tunnel. "It's all meant to promote this idea that the tunnel is a done deal," Campbell says. "I don't think it was just a coincidence that they suddenly decided to release it."