City says unintended data release could cost Click

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/03/30/3124058/city-says-unintended-data-release.html?sp=/99/261/

City says unintended data release could cost Click
By KATE MARTIN
Staff writer
March 30, 2014 Updated 18 minutes ago

More than a year ago, a Pierce County Superior Court judge said the public could not know how much money a city-owned cable network pays broadcasters because the charges are trade secrets.

Despite the court order stemming from that ruling, the city of Tacoma inadvertently released the details of Click’s payments to those broadcasters to a for-profit Florida company three times during the past year.

City leaders, told by The News Tribune earlier this month that the records existed on SmartProcure’s website, expressed surprise and moved to remove them. They said the release of the records puts Click at the mercy of broadcasters who might remove their signals or use the information to negotiate even higher fees.

The information was in the city’s purchasing database, which SmartProcure requested to include in an online trove of government purchasing records that it sells to potential government vendors.