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News Subpoenas add to doubts about Seattle city attorney Tacoma News Tribune: December 7, 2007 Tom Carr is proving his detractors right. Earlier this year, open-government advocates protested Carr's appointment as chairman of the state's new Sunshine Committee and for good reason. The Seattle city attorney is not known for his advocacy of public disclosure; quite the opposite, in fact. In 2004, he convinced the state Supreme Court to endorse a broad interpretation of the attorney-client privilege that effectively limited access to public records. Read More Carr wreck Columbia Basin Herald: December 6, 2007 Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr displayed his personal conflict of interest concerning open government when he ignored state law to subpoena three Seattle Times reporters in November as a tactic to defend the city against a lawsuit. After much criticism, he withdrew the subpoenas Wednesday. Carr is the same person appointed as the chairman of the state Sunshine Committee, a group reviewing more than 300 exemptions to the Public Disclosure Act. Their decisions go to the Legislature, suggesting whether the exemptions are to be removed or continue. This committee is an effort to make government more transparent to the public. Read More Teachers' Union Fights to Keep E-Mails Private Stranger: December 5, 2007 The Seattle Education Association (SEA), Seattle's teachers' union, has filed suit against Seattle Public Schools to block the release of e-mails they say would hurt their ability to renegotiate teachers' contracts. According to court documents, the school district received a public disclosure request on October 29 for e-mail communications between several union representatives about district contract bargaining and a grievance filed by a teacher against the union. While the e-mails were between union members, teachers receive SEA's communications through their district e-mail. The dispute raises questions about the privacy of e-mails sent over a public system and the union's abilities to protect privileged information. Read More Crist signs deal with Google to make public records easier to find AP: December 4, 2007 "Googling" something or someone? If the state of Florida has public records about them, they might show up in your search results. That wasn't always the case. Many state agency Web sites and electronic records haven't been indexed by big search engines run by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Under a new partnership announced Monday by Gov. Charlie Crist and Google, some state information that is on the Web, but sometimes hard to find, will show up as a result of searches on Google or one of its big competitors. Read More City attorney defends his challenge of reporter shield law Seattle PI: December 3, 2007 The attorney who chairs a state committee on open government is defending his decision to become the first to challenge the application of the new Shield Law protecting the identities of people who provide information to reporters. Last week, Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr subpoenaed three reporters to force them to divulge identities of confidential sources. Carr is defending the city in a civil lawsuit filed by former Seattle Police Officer John Powers. Part of the lawsuit turns on allegedly slanderous statements made by anonymous city officials to The Seattle Times. Carr is seeking to have reporters identify their sources. Read More < br> Tom Carr vs. the press Crosscut: December 3, 2007 Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr is no media darling, and his stock is falling further. His reputation as a government lawyer who is hostile to a free press could soon be set in cement. His latest action might not only create trouble in the courts but could blow up in an unlikely place: Gov. Chris Gregoire's face. Last week, Carr's office subpoenaed three Seattle Times reporters - Mike Carter, Steve Miletich, and Christine Willmsen - demanding to know their sources for a series of stories on cops who were under investigation for allegedly bad behavior in Belltown. The city is being sued by one of the key figures, John Powers, who is claiming he was defamed and wrongfully fired from the police department. The city wants to know who was leaking information to the paper. Read More Carr's wrong turn Seattle Times: December 3, 2007 The Seattle city attorney's decision to subpoena three Seattle Times reporters threatens to set a precedent disastrous to the public, which counts on the media to scrutinize government officials. Attorney Tom Carr is demanding the investigative reporters reveal their sources about alleged misconduct by Seattle police officers in stories published in 2004 and 2005. The Times is fiercely fighting the subpoenas, arguing its reporters cannot be compelled to reveal their sources. The First Amendment and the recently passed state reporter shield law pose high hurdles for Seattle's witch hunt. Read More Open government Carr wreck WPC: December 3, 2007 It was a bit surprising when Governor Gregoire appointed City of Seattle attorney Tom Carr as chair of the state's Sunshine Committee to review public records exemptions. Carr is best known to supporters of open government for his role in a Supreme Court case a few years ago RESTRICTING access to public records. The editorial response to the governor's decision was not favorable but there was some hope that Carr would prove his critics wrong. It appears this hope was misplaced. Read More Rossi wants city attorney off panel Seattle Times: December 1, 2007 Gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi is calling for Gov. Christine Gregoire to remove Seattle City Attorney Thomas Carr as the head of the state's Sunshine Committee after the city subpoenaed three Seattle Times reporters. The committee led by Carr is looking at ways to strengthen state open-records laws. But the attempt to force The Times reporters to identify confidential sources cited in stories about police misconduct runs directly counter to the state's new reporter-shield law, which explicitly prohibits subpoenas compelling reporters to turn over their notes or confidential sources. Read More Legislature should pass taping plan for executive sessions Yakima Herald: November 16, 2007 Any time two statewide elected officials from opposite political parties agree on a significant piece of legislation, voters and lawmakers should pay close attention -- something good is usually afoot. That bromide is particularly true with a proposal being floated by Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna and Democratic State Auditor Brian Sonntag to better protect the public from governmental abuse of the state's open public meetings act. The pair are poised to line up legislative sponsors for a bill in the 2008 legislative session to require elected boards, councils and commissions to make audio recordings of their private meetings (otherwise known as executive sessions). Read More < br> Let's Go To The Video Columbian: November 26, 2007 Surveillance video of students and happenings in public schools or on public transportation absolutely qualify as information that should be made available to the public. How ridiculous for the Kelso School District to contend that video taken on one of its school buses was private student information. Thank goodness, the state Supreme Court remembers who the buses and schools belong to: taxpayers.Read More WA high court could rule on executive, legislative privilege AP: November 21, 2007 For years, state government officials have asserted a constitutional privilege that allows lawmakers and governors to shield some information from public view. But open government advocates have said the legal foundation for those privileges is too shaky in this state - no specific law spelling them out, and no Washington court upholding the principle on appeal. That could change Thursday, when the state Supreme Court rules on a case that has brought new focus to a sometimes obscure area of open government law. Read More Report details loophole debates Olympian: November 17, 2007 The "sunshine committee" that is studying how to tighten loopholes in state government's records-disclosure laws avoided any tough recommendations in its first report to the Legislature. The committee was created to examine more than 300 exemptions that have crept into records law since voters approved Initiative 276's sweeping disclosure requirements in 1972. Fierce opposition surfaced in recent hearings when records-exemptions for agriculture and other interests were discussed. "I think what we've learned as a body is there is no such thing as a noncontroversial exemption," said Tim Ford, vice chairman of the committee, which is supposed to find exemptions that might need to be removed or amended. "We're actually deliberating. I'm not disappointed. We're still debating. It's not shot down." Read More Court backs local family over school district Longview Daily News: November 16, 2007 The State Supreme Court today ordered the Kelso School District to release a school bus surveillance video that it had denied to a family who wants to review it for evidence that their son was bullied. The high court's 7-2 ruling overturned Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Stephen Warning's March 2004 denial of the request for the tape by Richard and Ginger Lindeman of Kelso. The Lindemans assert that the school bus video of Oct. 8, 2003, shows another student repeatedly kicking and hitting their son during the ride to Rose Valley Elementary School. Read More Documents Will Be Buried With Monorail Authority Seattle Weekly: November 14, 2007 Dead but awaiting final rites, the Seattle Popular Monorail Authority apparently will be allowed to take some of its most treasured internal documents to its grave, as a King County Superior Court judge recently tossed a lawsuit seeking disclosure of the agency's records. The suit, filed by the Washington Coalition for Open Government (WCOG), was in part a fishing expedition, since no one but the monorail authority knows for sure what the documents contain. In court, the coalition, whose board members include attorneys, public officials, and news executives, argued the documents were "not confidential communications" between the monorail and its attorneys, despite agency claims to the contrary, and suggested the material was being withheld under the guise of containing legal advice. Read More Counties group opposes taping closed sessions Columbian: November 14, 2007 The Washington State Association of Counties voted Tuesday to oppose a bill in the upcoming Legislature that would require elected boards, councils and commissions to make audiotapes of their closed executive sessions. The state's open meetings law permits elected officials to discuss pending litigation, personnel matters, real estate transactions and a few other subjects behind closed doors, but it requires that they take all votes in public sessions. The measure, sponsored by Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna and state Auditor Brian Sonntag, would require elected bodies to keep the tapes for at least two years. If someone filed a challenge contending that an elected body had discussed a subject in closed session that is not covered by the state's open meetings law, a judge would listen to the tape, review other evidence, and decide what information must be disclosed. Read More Law stops disclosure of medical mistakes Seattle Times: October 30, 2007 The medical-malpractice law passed last year does prevent public disclosure of individual hospitals' reports of errors such as performing surgery on the wrong body part or leaving behind objects in surgery patients, the state Attorney General's Office has advised the Department of Health. The Attorney General's Office memo, written last week, was obtained through a public-disclosure request. Attorney-client privilege, which could prevent release of the information, was waived by the health department. The issue received widespread attention recently after the health department agreed to stop publicly disclosing so-called "adverse events or incidents" at the request of the Washington State Hospital Association. The health department has collected and publicly disclosed certain errors since 2000, but the hospital association argued that the 2006 law stopped the hospital-specific disclosures and the health department agreed, pending a legal opinion from the Attorney General's Office. Read More Lawmakers must take swift action to ensure hospitalsreport medical errors Union-Bulletin: October 28, 2007 Last week Washingtonians, as they should have been, were outraged that the Washington State Hospital Association seemed to favor covering up medical mistakes. Some hospitals claimed a new law mandated silence when serious medical errors occurred, The Seattle Times reported. This law, in hospital officials' opinion, trumped a law that called for reporting to the state Health Department ``adverse events'' such as operating on the wrong body part or leaving scissors in a patient's body. This conflict in laws caused the Health Department to stop releasing hospital-specific adverse event statistics, said Byron Plan of the Health Department. Read More Public deserves access to data on hospital errors Olympian: October 28, 2007 In 2000, the Legislature passed a law that said, in essence, when hospitals screw up, they must report those "adverse events" to the state Department of Health. In June 2006, the law was expanded to include additional categories of serious, preventable errors. In the first 14 months of the law, according to the Spokesman Review newspaper in Spokane, hospitals reported 223 mistakes including: o 23 operations on the wrong body part. Read More Washington Gets "F" in Report on State Open-Gov't Laws OG-Blog: October 27, 2007 The National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Better Government Association teamed up to grade the states' open-government laws. Here is the report and the state-by-state scorecard. Washingtonians can quit congratulating themselves. We got an "F." The two states in the country best known for corruption--New Jersey and Louisiana--actually got "A"s while Washington got an "F." Think about that. Is it time for an initiative to clean up the Public Records Act? Read More Mistakes hospitals don't want you to see Seattle Times: October 23, 2007 Over the past year, hospitals in Washington left "foreign objects" in 36 surgery patients. And 21 people got surgery on the wrong body parts. Hospitals have reported such "adverse events" to the state Department of Health since 2000, also including performing surgery on the wrong patient, and medication errors that can kill or seriously harm patients. But now the Washington State Hospital Association says it doesn't want the public to know which hospitals made the mistakes. It contends that a bill passed last year forbids release of such records, and the association has gotten the state to halt disclosure. At least one state lawmaker is vowing to fight back. Read More < br> At stake: diverse media and open government Seattle Times: October 21, 2007 At the state level, there was good and bad news last week concerning open government. At the head of my good list is an effort by the Washington Coalition for Open Government to get candidates to pledge "to support the public's right to know at every opportunity." WCOG's Web site, www.washingtoncog.org, has a list of candidates throughout the state who have signed the pledge. Just click on the "open government pledge" link under government. You'll find the full pledge statement and the candidate list sorted in various ways. There is also this disclaimer: "Inclusion in this list does not imply endorsement by the coalition, but we appreciate the commitment each of these candidates has made to uphold the people's right to open government." Read More Hospitals making mistakes won't be named Spokesman Review: October 19, 2007 Serious mistakes made by individual hospitals in Spokane and across Washington will no longer be reported to the public following a review of a 2006 law requested by the state hospital association. Hospital-specific errors such as surgery performed on the wrong body part, items left behind after an operation or the development of life-threatening pressure sores were wrongly disclosed for more than a year, state health department officials said this week. Information contained in the reports should only have been released in the aggregate and for geographies large enough to prevent identification of the hospitals where the mistakes occurred, said Byron Plan, executive manager of the Office of Health Care Survey. Read More A government that's open, accessible and responsive Seattle Times: October 18, 2007 Democratic government is built on the foundation that its power and authority rest with the people. To preserve that power, citizens absolutely must have information about the actions and activities of their government - through the news media's watchdog role and through access to public records and meetings. In Washington state, we have strong public-access laws citizens themselves put in place in the 1970s by using their power of initiative. The preamble of one of those laws - the state Open Public Meetings Act - makes clear citizens' intent: "The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so they may retain control over the instruments they have created." Read More We reserve right to be silly behind our closed doors Tacoma News Tribune: October 17, 2007 Democracy can be a real drag, especially with all of these legal and moral demands to conduct it in the open. It would be so much more efficient and convenient if elected officials could simply do the people's business in private. And who doesn't support government efficiency? But time and time again, just when the electeds want to get in and get out without all the fuss and muss of open discussions and public participation, some good-government type starts squawking about open meetings and open records and doing the public's business in public. Read More WA open government group starts work, big topics still linger AP: October 16, 2007 Experts started putting government secrecy under the microscope Tuesday, but state lawmakers said they don't want the new "Sunshine Committee" to start toying with legislators' ability to keep many of their e-mails secret. Not yet, anyway. That's because the state Supreme Court could soon decide whether the state constitution includes a "legislative privilege" protecting lawmakers from disclosing certain communications. The 13-member committee, charged with combing through hundreds of exemptions carved into Washington's 35-year-old open records law, agreed Tuesday to delay any recommendations about the Legislature's unique open records exemption. Committee members also didn't finish their discussion about a law that keeps applications for public employment secret, even after a candidate is hired by the state. Read More Eyeball the state's spending online Houston Chronicle: October 16, 2007 The online "window" to state government now allows viewers to climb in and rummage through the checkbook. Texas this month joined a handful of states and the federal government in posting detailed financial information on the Internet. Anyone with strong eyeballs and an investigative spirit now can search for pork or find out if their neighbor's business sells widgets to the state. The "Where The Money Goes" feature on the comptroller's Web site - at www.window.state.tx.us - is the result of legislation by a group of thirtysomething, tech-savvy lawmakers. Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, a technology consultant who founded the first company to register voters online, wrote the bill that required the online database. He modeled it after federal legislation passed last year. Texas joins Kansas, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Hawaii and Missouri in setting up searchable spending sites. Read More Let the spotlight shine on legislative records exemption Seattle PI: October 16, 2007 When legislators voted earlier this year to form a special "Sunshine Committee" to review the more than 300 exemptions to the Public Records Act, they probably didn't expect the light to be shined in their own faces. But that's exactly what the committee decided to do in its meeting Tuesday when it included "legislative records" in the list of four exemptions it would review. This exemption is contained within the definition of "public record," and states that certain types of legislative documents are simply not public records. This includes "reports or correspondence made or received by or in any way under the personal control of the individual members of the Legislature." In other words, arguably all the e-mails legislators (and their staffers) send among themselves are exempt. Read More Pipeline records should not be kept from public Olympian: October 15, 2007 Pipeline industry officials who have failed to change the state law have turned to the courts to keep specific pipeline records out of the hands of the public and away from the media. In their quest for secrecy, pipeline officials lost in Thurston County Superior Court when Judge Richard "Cork" Hicks said the Utilities and Transportation Commission had an obligation to make pipeline records available to the public. Now a three-judge appeal panel has sent the case back to Hicks saying the potential for terrorist threats means the pipeline records case should be sent to trial. Why should the public care about this legal maneuvering? Because the final outcome could affect your personal safety. Read More Counter suit filed in records request Olympian: October 13, 2007 Pierce County prosecutors are trying to turn the tables on the powerful Building Industry Association of Washington in an ongoing battle over public-records disclosure. A Thurston County judge rejected the builders' claims in August that Pierce elections officials withheld records or destroyed them improperly in connection with voter-registration fraud in the 2006 elections. Superior Court Judge Anne Hirsch found that elections workers destroyed two e-mails, but there was no legal requirement to keep copies of e-mails that another agency was required to keep. Read More Sunshine Committee ready for first batch of open-records reviews AP: October 13, 2007 Now they get down to business. Washington's Sunshine Committee, a panel of experts and insiders charged with strengthening the state's open records laws, is ready to delve into its first substantial bit of work this week. At a meeting Tuesday in Ellensburg, the 13-member committee will begin scrutinizing some of the nearly 300 exemptions from the state law that calls for the free flow of government information. They're not expected to get too deep into that list before suggesting an opening round of changes next month. But committee members like House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, say they're eager to start combing through the ever-growing list of official government secrets. Read More Data on school crimes hard to obtain Seattle PI: September 27, 2007 Parents who want to find out more about possible crimes in their child's school don't really have much recourse, short of filing a public records request and sifting through hundreds of pages of documents. Seattle Public Schools is required to report to the state superintendent the number and type of weapons found in schools, as well as the number of suspensions and expulsions for violent crimes. The data are compiled on the state superintendent's Web site at www.k12.wa.us/SafeDrugFree/WeaponsReport.aspx. District officials also regularly review school security data and cross-reference the numbers with discipline records to look for trends and patterns. But that information isn't compiled into an annual report -- and none is made public. Read More Recess meeting draws concern Spokesman-Review: September 26, 2007 The Spokane City Council may have broken the state's open meeting law on Monday night while it was trying to figure out how to assure voters that the city would keep track of the money from a bond issue voters are being asked to approve for parks and pools, a state attorney said Tuesday. As the council seemed about to deadlock over what kind of committee it should set up, Council President Joe Shogan called a recess. But rather than leave the dais, council members gathered in groups and continued to talk, presumably about the issue. At one point four gathered and conversed; at another point, five. Read More Open government needs open records Seattle Times: September 26, 2007 Presidential records belong to the public. Allowing former presidents - and most incredibly, their relatives - to seal records indefinitely is an affront to open government and a free and informed democracy. Congress needs to call the bluff of the anonymous senator who placed a procedural hold on legislation to challenge and overturn a 2001 executive order by President Bush. The president is trying to hide records from public scrutiny, and he goes so far as to say a president's heirs retain control over the papers of a deceased president. Baloney. So says the House of Representatives by a vote of 333-93. A similar, lopsided vote was a good bet in the Senate until a mystery lawmaker stopped everything cold. Read More Woman battles to shield cops' data Spokesman Review: September 25, 2007 For years, when Karen Schweigert's husband came home from work, he quickly backed his work-issued vehicle out of sight into their garage. It wasn't that he wasn't allowed to take the car home. It was that he didn't want passers-by to know he was a state trooper. Police "get threatened every day," said Schweigert, an Arlington mom and attorney. "Ninety percent of it rolls off their back, but some of it, you say 'Maybe there's something there.' "She says that same worry is fueling her attempt to block state officials from giving a Seattle newspaper the names, birth dates, photos and other information for every Washington State Patrol officer. A Spokane County judge is scheduled to hear arguments over the injunction Friday in a case that pits concerns over individual privacy against state laws guaranteeing government accountability. Read More A giant boost for life, a warning about secrets Seattle Times: September 24, 2007 Washington state has taken its long-awaited plunge into its ambitious commitment to life-sciences research with the announcement of $4.5 million worth of grants. Actually, the Life Sciences Discovery Fund got a boost from generous private contributors to make its first grant awards, while waiting for the availability of state money beginning next year. Created by the 2005 Legislature, the fund's money comes from the $350 million awarded to Washington state from the 1998 national settlement between the states and tobacco companies. When Christine Gregoire was attorney general, she was the lead attorney for the landmark lawsuit. As governor, she proposed this bonus money from health-impairing tobacco companies be applied to health-enhancing biomedical research. Even better if it creates the jobs in Washington she expects. The first batch of awards went to six Washington-based research teams that will tackle aspects of such challenges as breast cancer, surgical care, diabetes and medication management. All are proposing new applications of technology to health care and are structured to create new economic opportunities - key criteria for the fund. The recipients emerged from a pool of 75 applications. Read More Public meetings, if you dial in Tacoma News Tribune: September 24, 2007 People already rely on telephones to pay bills, order takeout and find potential soul mates. Now elected leaders are authorizing themselves to conduct government business via long distance. University Place is the latest to consider joining the chat line, following Lakewood and others that have already dialed in. It is mostly about convenience and efficiency, but it also touches on a mostly unexplored facet of state law. The Open Public Meetings Act requires that government bodies hold their meetings in public, except when dealing with personnel, real estate or litigation matters. No courts have addressed whether someone phoning into a meeting can discuss or vote on an issue, according to Seattle-based Municipal Research and Services Center. Read More 4 Renton officials accused ofopen-meeting violation Seattle Times: September 23, 2007 The Renton City Council often has been divided, but last week, in the heat of the mayoral race, the tension reached a fever pitch and someone filed a lawsuit. That someone was Dan Clawson, a longtime member of the council and a supporter of Mayor Kathy Keolker. He has accused the mayor's opponent, Denis Law, and three other council members of violating the Open Public Meetings Act.Clawson filed suit Tuesday in King County Superior Court, asking that each council member named pay the $100 penalty for violating the act. Read More Governor: Open electronic records Olympian: September 22, 2007 Gov. Chris Gregoire has ordered state agencies to be more responsive to requests for electronic records kept by government. The governor sent a directive to state agency directors this week asking for more compliance. However, she also said at least one court has said Washington's Public Records Act law does not require government to produce electronic copies of public records and that few states have addressed electronic records in their disclosure laws. "Today, regardless of the technical requirements of the Act, I am asking all state agency public records officers to work with people who request electronic copies of non-exempt public records and, whenever possible, to satisfy these requests," Gregoire wrote. Read More Open government heroes honored EFF Blog: September 21, 2007 This morning I had the privilege of attending an awards breakfast hosted by the Washington Coalition for Open Government, at which the Coalition honored seven people who have championed open government. The primary awards went to Frank Garred, a retired publisher who's also a member of the new Sunshine Committee, and to Paul Wright, publisher of Prison Legal News. Paul recently won the largest public records suit in state history (in terms of penalties). The other honorees were Attorney General Rob McKenna, House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, Mark Mahnkey, Todd Hodgens, Armen Yousoufian, and Glen Milner. Read More Let the sun shine Seattle Times: September 21, 2007 There is much to celebrate this morning at the Washington Coalition for Open Government annual awards breakfast. After years of legislative propensity to create new hiding places for public information and a couple of unfriendly court rulings, things finally are starting to brighten for advocates of sunshine in government. For starters, a new state Sunshine Committee has begun meeting to scrutinize the validity of exemptions to the state open-records law. And some high-profile lawsuits recently settled with government agencies paying for their wrongdoing. Read More On Second Thought Columbian: September 11, 2007 Belatedly, Gov. Chris Gregoire did the right thing late last week when she made public the names of unsuccessful applicants for a new "Sunshine Committee" that will recommend ways to close loopholes in the state's open public records law. Yes, this sounds like an "inside-baseball" editorial for politics and government junkies. But opening up records of local and state government agencies (ports, fire districts, schools, cities, counties, state agencies, you name it) is a matter of far-ranging importance to the public (individuals, interest groups, neighborhood associations, you name it). Read More Gregoire made right choice releasing records Olympian: September 9, 2007 The irony was inescapable: Gov. Chris Gregoire refusing to turn over records associated with a committee studying access to public records. Under a new law, Gregoire got to appoint six of the 13 members of a new "Sunshine Committee." The job of the committee members is to scrub state laws and Open Public Records Act to determine why 10 exemptions to the open public records act has grown to more than 300 today. The expectation is the Sunshine Committee will get rid of unnecessary exemptions and return the law to what the citizens intended when they passed it by initiative in 1972. The Sunshine Committee is all about opening up government and letting the sun shine in - giving members of the public access to the records of their governing officials. Read More Court: E-mails were OK to delete Olympian: September 8, 2007 A Thurston County court ruled Friday that Pierce County elections officials properly destroyed two e-mails last year, but that destroying records is not a lawful way for government to avoid records requests. The decision by Thurston County Superior Court Judge Anne Hirsch was a clarification of her earlier ruling, which also backed the Pierce County Auditor's Office in its quarrel with the Building Industry Association of Washington. At issue was how to apply the Public Records Act in cases in which records no longer exist. Read More Gregoire releases "Sunshine" applications Tri-City Herald: September 7, 2007 Gov. Chris Gregoire has changed her mind about keeping some "Sunshine Committee" applications secret, releasing documents to The Associated Press about a week after saying she would keep them under wraps. The 20 pages of resumes, letters and e-mails regarding seven unsuccessful committee applicants were released to the AP Thursday and Friday, after Gregoire asked each person whether they objected to the information being made public. The Sunshine Committee's job is to sort through the more than 300 exemptions to the Public Records Act and recommend instances where the Legislature can keep, repeal or amend particular exemptions that allow government information to be kept from the public. Read More News not promising on open-government front Bellingham Herald: September 6, 2007 We were excited when the state Legislature passed, and the governor signed, a bill that created a new committee to help promote openness in government. The Sunshine Committee is supposed to look at the myriad exemptions to the state's open public records laws and recommend removal of exemptions that make little sense or are too restrictive. But the news since the 13-member committee was created has not been good. First, Gov. Chris Gregoire appointed Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr as chairman. Carr's appointment brought howls from open records advocates, who point out that Carr has spent much of his career fighting against disclosure of public information. Read More Judge blocks records release Tacoma News Tribune: September 6, 2007 A judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked release of Federal Way School District records about an elementary school music teacher accused of inappropriately touching an 11-year-old student. King County Superior Court Judge Laura Gene Middaugh prevented the district from releasing the documents regarding teacher Scott Riley to The News Tribune. The newspaper last month requested district decisions about Riley dating to January. He was placed on paid administrative leave last spring after the touching allegations surfaced and he was arrested. Read More Officials must take open government seriously Spokesman-Review: September 5, 2007 'The provisions of this chapter shall be liberally construed to promote … full access to public records so as to assure continuing public confidence of fairness of elections and governmental processes, and so as to assure that the public interest will be fully protected." Those words are drawn from the Declaration of Policy in Washington state's Public Disclosure Act, which voters approved in 1972.Clearly, citizens have a right to examine public records maintained by government agencies. You'd think that after 35 years, such a law would be ingrained in the minds of public officials. You'd be wrong. Read More Gov. Gregoire Casts More Doubt on Her Claims to Openness Chronicle: September 4, 2007 Gov. Chris Gregoire's actions relative to the new committee established by the Legislature to examine the validity of exemptions to the state's Public Records Act is a prime example of why the panel is needed. Dubbed the "Sunshine Committee," the 13-member panel is charged with reviewing controversial existing exemptions to the act, passed by voters as Initiative 276 in 1972. The panel will recommend whether the Legislature should retain, repeal or amend the exemptions, which allow government entities to withhold records from public scrutiny. Gregoire, we believe, erred in choosing a polarizing person to head the committee, Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr. In that position, he has been a strong advocate for keeping government records sealed, even in cases where convincing arguments indicated they shouldn't be. Read More Exemptions to state's law on open records need review Union Bulletin: September 3, 2007 A dark cloud has already formed over Washington state's new Sunshine Committee, a 13-member panel formed to review and modify or eliminate exemptions to the state's public records law. Gov. Chris Gregoire has decided not to name those who applied for a spot on the commission but were not selected. The governor cited an exemption that says applications for public employment can be kept secret. That's nonsense. These are applicants to a citizens committee and the citizens have every right to know who was not selected. Gregoire's decision is an ironic twist that gets this committee off to a dubious start. Read More Governor shows need for disclosure-act review Everett Herald: September 2, 2007 As the state's new Sunshine Committee convened for the first time Tuesday, its controversial chairman was trying hard to get off on the right foot. "Good government is open government," said Tom Carr, who was appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire to head the panel that will weigh in on the hundreds of exemptions that are weighing down the state's public disclosure act. Carr's words were obviously crafted to reassure open-government advocates who had criticized his appointment as chairman, given his record as Seattle city attorney of working to shield public records from public view. Read More Are e-mails public records? Seattle Times: August 31, 2007 Most workers know the boss can track their computer use: Send too many personal e-mails, visit too many Web sites unrelated to work, and it could spell trouble. State workers get the same warning. But unlike workers at private companies, their business, by law, is open to public scrutiny. So what happens when a state worker uses his office computer to send e-mails about things like dating habits, weekend plans or family turmoil? Do taxpayers have a right to see those messages? Read More AP AHEAD: Gregoire won't release 'Sunshine Committee' documents Seattle PI: August 30, 2007 Gov. Chris Gregoire has refused to reveal the identities of some people who weren't picked for seats on the state's new "Sunshine Committee." Gregoire, responding to an Associated Press public records request, has kept secret several resumes, letters and e-mail exchanges from unsuccessful applicants to the committee. In her reply, the Democratic governor cited an exemption to public records law that says applications for public employment can be kept secret. Open government experts scoffed at that reasoning, pointing out that compensation for Sunshine Committee service is limited to travel reimbursements that several members don't actually qualify for. Read More Public Disclosure Must Be Protected Kitsap Sun: August 30, 2007 Let the sunshine in! That was the sentiment of Washington state's voters in 1972, when they passed Initiative 276 with a landslide 72 percent majority. Passage if I-276 resulted in creation of the Public Disclosure Act, a sweeping "sunshine" law that codified the public's right to know about its government. But 35 years later, that right has been diminished by court rulings and limitations imposed by the Legislature, particularly regarding access to public records. When the law passed in 1972, there were only 10 exemptions to disclosure of public records. Now, there are more than 300. Read More Court supports open public records Spokesman-Review: August 30, 2007 Washington's Public Disclosure Act requires more than "substantial compliance," the state Court of Appeals says in a strong new affirmation of the open-government law. "Administrative inconvenience or difficulty does not excuse strict compliance," the Spokane branch of the court said in a recent opinion written by new Judge Debra Stephens. The Spokane attorney replaced retiring Judge Ken Kato in May. Appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire, Stephens is the second woman ever to serve on the court. Read More Group begins review of records act exemptions Olympian: August 29, 2007 When approved in 1972, the state's public-disclosure law said all government records should be available to the public - with 10 exceptions, such as the personal records of public schools students. Since then, the list of legal reasons to keep government information secret has grown to at least 300. Trying to make sense of the public-records act now is "virtually impossible," said Thomas Carr, chairman of the new state Sunshine Committee. The group is charged with reviewing the legal reasons the government can use to withhold information from the public. It met for the first time Tuesday in Olympia. Read More Will the sun shine again? Wenatchee World: August 23, 2007 The state's new Public Records Exemptions Accountability Committee, we are grateful, has a nickname. They call it "The Sunshine Committee" because, we presumed, it was created by the Legislature to scrutinize the hundreds of small laws that enable government secrecy, the multitude of exemptions that let some public records be cloaked. The committee holds its first meeting next week, and considering the disposition of its leadership some wonder if the nickname will fit. "Sunshine" may be the wrong word. The Partly Cloudy Committee or the Fading Twilight Committee might be more appropriate, depending on what happens next. Read More Restore access to public information Seattle Times: August 23, 2007 Tom Carr has a chance to prove he is the open-government advocate he claims to be with his appointment to lead a committee scrutinizing state laws that have eroded Washington's public-records law. The Seattle city attorney's challenge is winning over open-government advocates who blame him for a troubling shift in the state's legal interpretation of attorney-client privilege when it comes to disclosing government records. In Hangartner v. City of Seattle, the state Supreme Court sided with Seattle, saying government agencies can claim attorney-client privilege to withhold documents from the public - even when there is no threat of litigation. Read More Wrong man for job Spokesman Review: August 22, 2007 Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire has made an odd choice for chairman of the state's new Sunshine Committee. The Legislature created the panel - officially the Public Records Exemption Accountability Committee - to review the growing number of official records that can be withheld from the public. The governor appoints six of the 13 members, including the chairman. You'd expect a job like that to go to someone demonstrably committed to open government, but she gave it to Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr. Read More Open records loopholes need hard, skeptical look Tacoma News Tribune: August 22, 2007 The Sunshine Committee created by the 2007 Legislature is at last materializing. Let's hope it lives up to its name. The committee's charge is to review exemptions to the state's public records laws; such a review is sorely needed. When the Public Disclosure Act was enacted by an overwhelming vote in 1972, it allowed agencies only 10 narrow reasons to deny citizens access to state and local government documents. Since then, the exemptions have proliferated like mosquitoes in a swamp. The Public Disclosure Act now has more than 300 loopholes. Many are designed to hide the dealings of one special interest or another; among them are organic food producers, railroad companies, highway contractors and private vocational schools. Read More Public records must be open Olympian: August 21, 2007 Thurston County Superior Court Judge Anne Hirsch is new to the bench. Let us hope her inexperience is the reason for her misguided decision recently on an important public records case. If Hirsch's ruling is allowed to stand, it will gut the state's Open Public Records law and limit the amount of information members of the public are able to pry out of the hands of government officials. The judge has agreed to hold another hearing on the issue Sept. 7. Let's hope attorneys are able to show her the importance of government entities maintaining copies of ALL public records. Read More Will the sun shine again? Wenatchee World: August 23, 2007 The state's new Public Records Exemptions Accountability Committee, we are grateful, has a nickname. They call it "The Sunshine Committee" because, we presumed, it was created by the Legislature to scrutinize the hundreds of small laws that enable government secrecy, the multitude of exemptions that let some public records be cloaked. The committee holds its first meeting next week, and considering the disposition of its leadership some wonder if the nickname will fit. "Sunshine" may be the wrong word. The Partly Cloudy Committee or the Fading Twilight Committee might be more appropriate, depending on what happens next. Read More Restore access to public information Seattle Times: August 23, 2007 Tom Carr has a chance to prove he is the open-government advocate he claims to be with his appointment to lead a committee scrutinizing state laws that have eroded Washington's public-records law. The Seattle city attorney's challenge is winning over open-government advocates who blame him for a troubling shift in the state's legal interpretation of attorney-client privilege when it comes to disclosing government records. In Hangartner v. City of Seattle, the state Supreme Court sided with Seattle, saying government agencies can claim attorney-client privilege to withhold documents from the public - even when there is no threat of litigation. Read More Wrong man for job Spokesman Review: August 22, 2007 Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire has made an odd choice for chairman of the state's new Sunshine Committee. The Legislature created the panel - officially the Public Records Exemption Accountability Committee - to review the growing number of official records that can be withheld from the public. The governor appoints six of the 13 members, including the chairman. You'd expect a job like that to go to someone demonstrably committed to open government, but she gave it to Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr. Read More Open records loopholes need hard, skeptical look Tacoma News Tribune: August 22, 2007 The Sunshine Committee created by the 2007 Legislature is at last materializing. Let's hope it lives up to its name. The committee's charge is to review exemptions to the state's public records laws; such a review is sorely needed. When the Public Disclosure Act was enacted by an overwhelming vote in 1972, it allowed agencies only 10 narrow reasons to deny citizens access to state and local government documents. Since then, the exemptions have proliferated like mosquitoes in a swamp. The Public Disclosure Act now has more than 300 loopholes. Many are designed to hide the dealings of one special interest or another; among them are organic food producers, railroad companies, highway contractors and private vocational schools. Read More Public records must be open Olympian: August 21, 2007 Thurston County Superior Court Judge Anne Hirsch is new to the bench. Let us hope her inexperience is the reason for her misguided decision recently on an important public records case. If Hirsch's ruling is allowed to stand, it will gut the state's Open Public Records law and limit the amount of information members of the public are able to pry out of the hands of government officials. The judge has agreed to hold another hearing on the issue Sept. 7. Let's hope attorneys are able to show her the importance of government entities maintaining copies of ALL public records. Read More Choice of Carr to head open-records panel criticized Seattle Times: August 21, 2007 Gov. Christine Gregoire will appoint Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr as chairman of a new committee to examine the more than 300 exemptions to the state's Public Records Act, a move that is being criticized by some open-records advocates. The governor couldn't have picked "a more polarizing figure," said Greg Overstreet, the former open-government ombudsman for Attorney General Rob McKenna."As ombudsman, I would speak to people and form a mental list of helpful agencies and unhelpful ones, and the city of Seattle was right at the top of the list of organizations that was unhelpful," he said. Overstreet, who is now in private practice specializing in public disclosure, cited a recent statewide public-records request by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The newspaper sought internal-affairs records about police officers driving while intoxicated. Read More More on Carr's appointment to Sunshine committee Seattle PI Blog: August 20, 2007 Tom Carr, the Seattle City Attorney, was quite unhappy with a post on this blog about his appointment to head the committee reviewing the exemptions to the state's public records laws. He was also unhappy that I said he hadn't returned calls for comment, because while I left a message on his assistant's voice mail I did not go back to the receptionist and ask for him directly. While this blog has a bit more room for subjectivity than the stories I write in the paper, fair is fair. So, in fairness, here is Mr. Carr's e-mail to me, which he agreed to have published. Read More Public Records: The Empire Strikes Back? AWB Blog: August 18, 2007 At AWB we've been generally supportive of recent open government and public records initiatives in Washington, and have written supportively about federal reform efforts. Over the weekend, this issue reached a boil as news came that Governor Gregoire has appointed Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr to chair the 13-member "Sunshine Committee" set up by the Legislature to review exemptions in the state's public disclosure law. Not everyone is pleased. This puts "Darth Vader" in charge of the committee, charges Greg Overstreet, formerly the AG's Open Government ombudsman, at his new law firm's Open Government blog. Open government advocates have crossed light sabers with Carr's client before and have not forgotten. Read More Suit delays shutdown of monorail agency Seattle PI: August 17, 2007 A lawsuit filed by an open records watchdog organization threatens to delay the end of Seattle's defunct monorail agency. Abandoned by Seattle voters in 2005, Seattle Monorail Project executives have attempted to scuttle the agency since, said Beth Goldberg, chair of the monorail board. But the authority can't close its doors -- or transfer about $500,000 in extra cash it continues to hold -- until all legal actions against it are resolved, Goldberg said. That includes two other cases awaiting final disposition in the state Supreme Court, and the public records suit filed in June by the Washington Coalition for Open Government. Read More City attorney to head public records panel Seattle Times Blog: August 17, 2007 Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr will be chairman of the state's new public records committee, says the AP. And that isn't sitting well with one prominent advocate for open records. The AP quotes Greg Overstreet, AG Rob McKenna's former public records ombudsman, as saying there is no "more polarizing figure." Overstreet is unhappy with the Carr appointment largely because of two specific cases. One was the city's withholding of information when the PI made public records requests statewide in preparation for a story on police DUIs. The other was a case known as Hangartner that went to the state Supreme Court. The high court sided with Seattle that Sound Transit documents could be kept private because they were protected by attorney-client privilege. Read More Let auditor do his job Olympian: August 16, 2007 Thurston County Commissioner Diane Oberquell needs to back off and let State Auditor Brian Sonntag and his staff do their job. At issue is a conflict between Sonntag, who is simply doing the public's work by auditing the county, and a county government official who feels inconvenienced. In this dust-up between fellow Democrats Sonntag is right and Oberquell is wrong. Initiative 900 was adopted by voters in 2005 with a 56 percent favorable vote. The nearly one million voters who supported I-900 gave state auditors permission to delve into government programs, not just follow the flow of tax dollars through public treasuries. Performance audits, as approved under Initiative 900, look for government programs that are working as intended and those where improvements are warranted. Read More Auditor's test clearly gauges performance of agencies Yakima Herald: August 16, 2007 Far from criticizing the methods of state Auditor Brian Sonntag in conducting performance audits of local and state government, we find his somewhat unconventional approach clearly in the best interests of citizens in pursuit of public records. Sonntag's auditors are putting the finishing touches on a project to test how well 30 local government and state entities around the state -- including the city of Yakima and Yakima County -- are responding to public records requests. As part of the test, each received a request for 10 records, including a sexual harassment prevention policy, travel and cell phone records for certain individuals and bonuses and awards. Read More BIAW could be right in fight with auditor Tacoma News Tribune: August 15, 2007 We have no doubt that the Pierce County auditor's office regards the regulation-hating Building Industry Association of Washington as a colossal pain in the neck. A lot of government officials do. But the association's legal fight with the auditor's office may be one instance in which fans of open government should root for the builders. The association claims the auditor withheld e-mail records that may show how the auditor's office handled voter registrations submitted by employees of a left-leaning advocacy group called ACORN. Last month, King County prosecutors filed felony charges against seven people who allegedly committed the biggest voter-registration fraud in state history. The defendants were employees and supervisors of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.Read More Restore strength of disclosure act Olympian: August 14, 2007 When voters in this state approved the Public Disclosure Act by initiative in 1972, they sent a clear message to elected and public officials across the state that access to open government is a cornerstone of democracy. The act approved 35 years ago contained only 10 exemptions to public disclosure. Now look at the law: It is riddled with at least 300 exemptions, including something as ludicrous as exemption for ginseng records maintained by the state Department of Agriculture. Read More Seattle police policy on disciplinary records ripe for challenge Seattle PI: August 13, 2007 The way the Seattle Police Department publicly discloses officer disciplinary records -- or rather, the way it doesn't -- may be ripe for a legal challenge, state open records law experts say, and at least one city politician has vowed to push the issue."We need to make the activities of our police much more transparent," said Seattle City Council President Nick Licata. "If it means going to court, then we're willing to do that." At issue is how Seattle police handle requests from the public that seek internal disciplinary records about officers. The Seattle P-I recently sent such public disclosure requests to more than 270 police agencies statewide, seeking such internal records as part of a statewide investigation into police officer discipline. Responses to the P-I's requests varied wildly, but the Seattle department was far more secretive than most agencies about releasing such records. Only police agencies operated by sovereign Indian tribes not subject to the state's open records law provided less information. Read More Ignorance persists on open meetings law Tacoma News Tribune: July 31, 2007 The federal A few bonehead seminars on Washington’s open government laws would be in order for many local officials. Those laws are as clear as any, and they are of fundamental importance, yet some local boards and councils just don’t get it. On a regular basis, local governing bodies violate either the law or the spirit of the law by hiding the public’s business from the public. The most recent case in the South Sound was the Tacoma School Board’s apparently illegal decision, in a closed meeting, to eliminate a candidate for the job of interim superintendent. Last Wednesday, the board held an “executive session” to consider candidates; the next day, in its regular open meeting, it voted 4-1 to hire Art Jarvis. But one candidate, Deputy Superintendent Ethelda Burke, had been told after Wednesday’s meeting – but before Thursday’s – that she wouldn’t be getting the job. Read More Notes should be public immediately Olympian: July 30, 2007 The federal A King County judge has ruled that notes made by the governor’s negotiators during union talks are public record. It’s a good ruling, as far as it goes. The notes taken by negotiators should be available to the public immediately after the two sides have come to an agreement, not after the state Legislature has ratified the collective bargaining agreement. Some public-employee unions fought a request for the notes by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, an Olympia think tank and frequent foe of organized labor. The unions, including the Washington Public Employees Association, argued that releasing such notes would undermine their ability to candidly fight for pay raises and other benefits by making their strategies public. Read More Federal information needs to be set free Seattle Times: July 24, 2007 The federal Freedom of Information Act is 41 years old and showing its age. Technology has changed the landscape in and out of government. The backlog of FOIA requests is huge — The Seattle Times has a pending request with the Department of Energy dating to 1995. And it hasn't helped that the Bush administration switched federal policy and adopted a begrudging attitude toward FOIA requests for government information. Now, the U.S. Senate is poised, rightly, to vote on a worthy update that would modernize the law and create consequences for agencies slow to comply. But a stubborn Arizona senator has put a toe on the bill.Read More Let the Sun Shine NY Times: July 23, 2007 We live in a nakedly transparent age. Celebrities live out loud, companies routinely have their business spilled all over the Web and anybody can find out an awful lot about you or me with a click of the mouse. Not so in Washington, however, where the mechanism for releasing information has all but ground to a halt. Four decades ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson reluctantly signed the Freedom of Information Act (F.O.I.A.) into law, requiring federal agencies to respond to any request for documents within 20 days and provide them within a reasonable time afterward. The law held that information gathered on our behalf — paid for and owned by you and me, at least theoretically — should be ours for the asking.Read More US Chamber, NAM, support FOIA reforms AWB: July 23, 2007 In today's New York Times, the business section looks at Congressional legislation pending to reform the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the law that allows citizens, trade associations, and of course journalists, to pierce the veil of obscurity that often surrounds the machinery of government. The Times, citing examples, notes the federal sunshine law has stopped working, resulting in wrongful denial of public records requests and abusive delays by federal agencies without any meaningful consequences. And so the oddly-if-optimistically titled "Openness Promotes Effectiveness in Our National Government Act of 2007" (OPEONGA?) is moving through the US Senate, with support from AWB national partners the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. Read More Are old, rusting ferries still fit? Everett Herald: July 22, 2007 The Herald attempted to inspect the Coast Guard records that document the problems with leaks on the four ferries. After months of being assured the Freedom of Information Act request was being processed, the Coast Guard this month said the request had somehow become lost. Others also have had trouble trying to get answers about the ferries' safety, including State Auditor Brian Sonntag. In 2004 Sonntag received a state whistle-blower complaint about ferry safety. The auditor's probe was cut short by ferry officials who said they had "serious questions" about state auditors poking around vessels and exploring safety first-hand, records show. Read More Closed-door unions Spokesman Review: July 19, 2007 It took Judge Christopher A. Washington only four economical paragraphs to make his point last week when he ruled that the public has a legitimate interest in seeing the written proposals as well as Washington state agencies' notes from collective bargaining sessions with public employee groups. "These records are of interest to the citizens of the State," he wrote. Contrary to what several public employee unions had contended, they are not exempt from the state's public records law. Good thing. Read More Oregon gets 'D' in public disclosures AP: July 19, 2007 group ranks states according to access to governors' financial information Washington is No. 1 and Oregon No. 21 when it comes to the amount of personal financial information that their governors are required to disclose. That is according to a ranking compiled by the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that does research on public issues. The center reviewed financial disclosure requirements for governors in the 50 states, ranking them on a scale of 0 to 100 points. Washington, with a score of 94.5, was the only state to earn an "A" grade, meaning it has the most extensive and detailed disclosure requirements, according to the center. Read More County court will be taped again Everett Herald: July 17, 2007 Audio recordings of legal proceedings held in front of Snohomish County court commissioners have resumed after more than three months without recording. Superior Court judges stopped the recordings in March, but ordered resumption after an Everett advocate of equal treatment for all parties in divorce cases lobbied for them. "I appealed to do the right thing," said Mark Mahnkey. "Something good happened so people can see what's going on in the courts if they care to look." Superior Court administrator Bob Terwilliger went to the judges with Mahnkey's argument, and they voted last month to resume the digital recordings. They started last week. Read More Let's inspect sewage in Paris! News Tribune: July 14, 2007 Jason Mercier at the Washington Policy Center, whose staffers read state audits over their breakfast cereal, tipped us to this "finding" against the Annapolis (Kitsap County) Water District: In October 2006, the three District Commissioners went to Europe to gather information regarding sewage treatment systems. The trip cost $3,823.89. Because all of the Commissioners went on this trip, the decision to make the trip, with at least some travel planning, should have occurred in an open public meeting. However, we could find no mention in meeting minutes of any discussion on the decision to make the trip . . . Read More Judge: Notes from union talks are public Olympian: July 14, 2007 A King County judge has ruled that notes made by the governor’s negotiators during union talks are public record. Some public-employee unions fought a request for the notes by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, an Olympia think tank and frequent foe of organized labor. The unions, including the Washington Public Employees Association, argued that releasing such notes would undermine their ability to candidly fight for pay raises and other benefits by making their strategies public. Read More Court fails to adapt to time Olympian: July 9, 2007 Just when court officials began catching up with 21st century technology, along comes Thurston County Superior Court Judge Christine Pomeroy and throws a monkey wrench into the mess. The issue before Pomeroy was whether the state Department of Corrections should be forced to release electronic copies of information sought by a state employee. Pomeroy said it's clear that paper copies of the records are disclosable under the law. But the judge said that there is nothing in the state law that requires agencies of government to release documents in electronic format even if those electronic records are within the agency's possession and control. Read More District, union divided on taping Columbian: June 28, 2007 For the past month, Vancouver Public Schools and the teachers union have been quibbling over whether to tape-record bargaining sessions. It started when union leaders brought an audio recorder to the table in May. District officials would have none of it."We asked them to turn it off," said Lee Goeke, human relations director for the school district. "They refused to turn it off. Had we stayed at the bargaining table, effectively what we would have been doing is letting one side unilaterally change the ground rules." Read More Bill fosters openness in political process Olympian: June 28, 2007 Congressman Brian Baird, D-Wash., re-introduced a bill in Congress last week that would ensure the public and members of Congress have adequate time to review and read legislation before it comes up for a vote. Under the provisions of House Resolution 504, all bills and conference reports would be available online for 72 hours prior to a vote. Baird’s pushed this legislation for years for all the right reasons. Members of Congress have both a responsibility and a right to review and read legislation before casting a vote. And every member of the public and the press have the same right. The bill would bring transparency and openness to the political process, something sorely needed in Washington, D.C. Read More School Board sought legal advice on secret vote News Tribune: June 28, 2007 Two days after the Tacoma School Board voted in closed session on Superintendent Charlie Milligan’s review in March, district officials sought outside legal advice, recently released documents show. Milligan and members of the board – who now are negotiating his departure – spent a total of 3.7 hours in conversation with Valerie Hughes of the Perkins Coie law firm in Seattle on March 20 and 21, an invoice shows. The bill for her services: $1,369.The conversations took place amid questions about whether the board violated the Open Public Meetings Act on March 18 when three members voted to give Milligan a “satisfactory” review during a rare Sunday meeting. Read More Port to vote on recording its closed sessions Seattle PI: June 27, 2007 A strange script plays out whenever the Port of Seattle Commission reveals a decision it has made behind closed doors.The president, John Creighton, gives his rectangular public smile, inclining his head to either side in consideration of the other four commissioners. There may be notes in front of him. If so, they are read. All the officials nod judiciously, and vote unanimously. In the audience, bored staffers go back to thumbing their BlackBerrys. Read More Open Government Notes Sound Politics: June 26, 2007 The Washington Coalition for Open Government (WashCOG) is seeking nominations for the James Madison Award and the James Andersen Award for individuals who have promoted open government in Washington state. Nominations are due July 1. (I will nominate Armen Yousoufian for his heroic, and still ongoing, public records lawsuit against King County). Open government super-lawyers Greg Overstreet and Michele Earl-Hubbard, now in practice together, recently started the Open-Government blog. Check it out. Read More Corrections faces another records lawsuit Seattle PI: June 18, 2007 A Thurston County judge will soon decide if the state Department of Corrections was obligated to provide electronic records to Doug Moore, a Tacoma man who wants to find out how many hours part-time agency employees must work in order to qualify for health insurance.The June 29 Superior Court hearing comes three weeks after the department agreed to pay the Seattle-based Prison Legal News $541,000 for withholding public records seven years ago -- the largest public records-related settlement in state history. Read More Penalty ought to get officials’ attention Olympian: June 18, 2007 When government bureaucrats botch requests for public records, it’s the taxpayers who pay. If bureaucrats had to dig into their own pockets instead of the public treasury, perhaps they would be a little more responsive to legitimate requests for government documents. Read More Huge fine makes it clear that public records belong to public Union-Bulletin: June 15, 2007 The state Department of Corrections was hit with a $541,000 penalty for withholding public records. The fine is both good and bad for the public. On the positive, the penalty sends the proper message to all public officials. It makes it clear that the people are entitled to know what their government is or isn't doing. They are entitled to access to public documents. Read More Agency learns an expensive lesson about public records Yakima Herald-Republic: June 15, 2007 At a time when exemptions from the state's Public Records Act are undergoing a long-overdue review for relevance comes an emphatic reminder to public agencies that the spirit and letter of the law are still in effect -- and enforced. The state Department of Corrections has just found that out the hard way after being slapped with $541,000 in fines and legal fees for withholding records. It's the largest penalty for violating the voter-approved law since it went into effect Jan. 1, 1973. Read More This Law is for You Columbian: June 14, 2007 Case of prison inmate’s search for public records law is good for us all If anyone wants an example of how Washington’s Public Disclosure Act is there for “the little guy” as well as for news reporters, lobbyists and political activists who navigate state and local government for a living, this might be it. Read More Open government forum backs ideas to add advocate, new rules News Tribune: June 14, 2007 A public hearing on adding an open government advocate to Pierce County as well as model open government language to the Pierce County code has convinced County Councilman Shawn Bunney Bunney, R-Lake Tapps, he should proceed on both ideas. “I’m convinced we’re on the right track,” Bunney said Wednesday night after the public forum in Tacoma. He said he would introduce legislation to add the advocate, and incorporate model rules on open meetings and records already adopted by the state Attorney General’s Office for all state agencies. Read More $541,000 says: Don’t withhold public records News Tribune: June 12, 2007 Washington’s Department of Corrections has a well-earned reputation for not being forthcoming with information. On Friday, its secretiveness backfired to the tune of $541,000. That’s how much the department will have to pay an inmate-rights publication and its attorneys under a settlement approved in Thurston County Superior Court. It’s the largest penalty a public agency has ever had to pay in this state for withholding public records, not a distinction to be proud of. Nor is the $541,000 actually being paid by the department itself: The bill ultimately will be picked up the taxpayers – a good reason to demand that public officials follow both the spirit and the letter of Washington’s Public Disclosure Act. Read More Open Government: Paying for mistakes Seattle PI: June 11, 2007 Open government is a proud Washington tradition. In an unfortunate but necessary way, that heritage is honored by having the state pay for its mistakes of withholding public information. The Department of Corrections will pay $541,000 for withholding information about reprimands for poor medical care from a prison-rights publication. The settlement with the Prison Legal News is the largest of its kind. The money ultimately comes from taxpayers. Even so, the settlement provides a measure of accountability for corrections under successive Democratic governors. And it ought to remind all those in charge of official records that Washington's public believes in openness about its business. Read More Corrections to pay $541,000 Seattle PI: June 9, 2007 The state Department of Corrections will pay a Seattle-based prisoner-rights newspaper $541,000 for withholding public records -- the largest public-records-related settlement in state history. The judgment Friday comes more than seven years after Paul Wright, the editor of Prison Legal News, submitted two requests for public records detailing how 14 prison medical workers were reprimanded for their treatment of 10 inmates who died or suffered serious injuries. The records included one prisoner whose wound was closed with Krazy Glue. Read More Open-Government Blog June 4, 2007 “Og-blog” stands for “open-government blog” and that’s what we do: tell people about open-government issues of interest to regular citizens, media, trade associations, and government agencies. We find interesting stories and court cases from Washington State and other places about the Public Records Act, Open Public Meetings Act, access-to-court rulings, and media law. Read More Public agency can’t make private deals Olympian: June 4, 2007 Officials at the state Department of Fish and Wildlife need to change their ways. Apparently they have forgotten that they are a public agency — accountable to the public. Agency officials have been negotiating secretly with the Indian tribes over hunting access on private timberlands. The public has a right to be part of the negotiations because the fish and wildlife in this state are a resource owned by all of us. All Washington residents — not just tribal members — have a stake in the outcome of the negotiations over this natural resource. Read More Kyl Unmasked as 'Senator Secrecy' on FOIA Reform; Defends Big Government's First Line of Defense Examiner: June 1, 2007 Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ, has conceded that he is the senator behind the secret hold on the proposed Open Government Reform Act of 2007, which would provide much-needed improvements in the federal Freedom of Information Act. AP reports that Kyl explains his decision to place the secret hold on the bill as a result of "uncharacteristically strong" objections from the Justice Department. Kyl will maintain his hold until supporters of the FOIA reform bill, which includes its primary architect, Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, and opponents can work out their differences. Read More Open negotiations Spokesman Review: June 1, 2007 If you're wondering why the unions that represent Washington state employees went to court to keep collective bargaining documents secret, take a look at some of the statements filed by union representatives. "If I, in the heat of negotiations, stated I didn't give a damn about those complaining customers and it was written down by a member of the management team, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation or a media outlet would print it on the front page of any communications organ of their choosing," said state ferry worker Jay Ubelhart. "If I knew that my comments would be available for public review, I would not be comfortable speaking until I had carefully thought through my comments," said home care worker T.J. Janssen. Those quotations come from declarations submitted by seven unions that want the court to prohibit the state Office of Financial Management from releasing records of their bargaining sessions. Read More Law opens records of ex-employees Statesman Journal: June 1, 2007 Disciplinary records of former school employees convicted of sexual abuse would be open to the public under a bill that Gov. Ted Kulongoski has signed. It closes a loophole in a 2005 law that opened records of school employees convicted of sexual abuse, but one district raised questions afterward about whether the law compelled disclosure of the records of a former employee. The 2005 law was prompted by the case of Joseph Billera, a former Houck Middle School band director who pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of four students. Read More Open-government official quitting Seattle Times: May 30, 2007 Greg Overstreet, Attorney General Rob McKenna's top deputy for public records and open meetings, is leaving to start a private practice concentrating on open government. McKenna has announced that the new open-government ombudsman will be Deputy Solicitor General Tim Ford. Overstreet leaves on June 15 and opens his new practice June 29. The ombudsman job was created by McKenna when he took office in 2005. Overstreet says the office doesn't sue agencies to force compliance. Instead, "we persuade and inform, and that is pretty effective," he said. Read More Tale of the Tapes Columbian: May 29, 2007 Executive sessions should be recorded Letting the sun shine deeper into government is a matter of open communication with its citizens. Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna wants to strengthen the process by requiring audio taping of closed "executive sessions." It's a great idea. Washington's Open Meetings Act sets the rules designed to keep the public informed of activity at all levels of government. By law, executive sessions, off limits to the public, must be restricted to discussions of personnel, real estate transactions, national security or litigation. Most executive sessions are legitimate, but sometimes the public agency wants to hide something or avoid embarrassment. Read More State’s open records law bares its teeth in Spokane News Tribune: May 29, 2007 Anyone who doubts the power of the state’s open records law ought to take a look to the east at Spokane, where city fathers are learning the lesson the hard way. The city recently agreed to pay $40,000 to an animal-rights organization to settle a lawsuit alleging that the city dragged its feet on releasing animal control complaints requested by Animal Advocates of the Inland Northwest. An attorney for the group first requested the complaints in 2003. She says it took a couple of years and several more requests for the city to turn over the records. Even then, the attorney wasn’t satisfied that she got everything she requested. Read More New open records chief for AG McKenna Seattle Times: May 25, 2007 Greg Overstreet, Attorney General Rob McKenna's top deputy for public records and open meetings, is leaving to start a private practice concentrating on open government. McKenna announced this morning that the new open government ombudsman will be Deputy Solicitor General Tim Ford. The ombudsman job was created by McKenna when he took office in 2005. And with Ford's appointment, it continues to be a job held by attorneys who worked for the Building Industry Association of Washington. Ford and Overstreet both were attorneys for the builders' lobbying group, an organization that has often fought open records battles with state officials. Read More Tales of the tape Seattle Times: May 22, 2007 Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna will propose a state law requiring all executive sessions of lawmaking bodies be audiotaped. This was a good idea when State Auditor Brian Sonntag proposed it seven years ago, and it is a good idea now. The purpose is not to make executive sessions available to the public, because that defeats the point of an executive session. But there are sometimes disputes over who said what. Port of Seattle commissioners recently argued over whether some of them, in executive session, had promised Port Executive Mic Dinsmore a severance package upon retirement. There was a document, but they disagreed on exactly what it meant. Read More State ombudsman will keep public information flowing Bellingham Herald: May 21, 2007 Too many governments treat public records laws like drivers treat speed limits: violating them often and only every once in a while getting punished, says Greg Overstreet. Overstreet is the ombudsman for open government in the state Attorney General’s office. His job is to help citizens of Washington get access to government information and to help government workers better understand the laws. He visited with some of our reporters and editors while he was in town May 18. Unfortunately, too many government workers stall or refuse to release information that is open to the public, he said. Read More Open records law discussed in Maple Falls Bellingham Herald: May 15, 2007 An assistant state attorney general will be on hand Friday to discuss open government and public records after more than a year of battles between the public and officials from Whatcom County Water District No. 13. Greg Overstreet, special assistant attorney general for government accountability, will be at a public meeting at the Kendall Elementary School library after area residents sought his advice. Overstreet initially tried to set up the meeting with the water district commissioners, but the district hasn’t responded in more than two months, he said. Read More Special Assistant Attorney General wins open government award Washington State Office of the Attorney General: May 14, 2007 Attorney General Rob McKenna is proud to announce the Washington Coalition for Open Government has awarded its Key Award to Greg Overstreet, special assistant attorney general for government accountability for the Attorney General's Office. The Washington Coalition for Open Government represents individuals and organizations intent on preserving and protecting Washington's open government laws and practices. Read More E-Mail Trail Shows Lawmakers Stacked Up Against Track Kitsap Sun: May 13, 2007 On the evening of Feb. 12, State Rep. Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, sent an e-mail message titled "Battle Stations" to fellow legislators from Kitsap County urging them to "remain at General Quarters." A couple of hours later, state Rep. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor, responded, "I’m ready for my orders." Read More Growing movement fights secrecy in government Seattle Times: May 13, 2007 "A government by secrecy benefits no one. It injures the people it seeks to serve; it damages its own integrity and operation. It breeds distrust, dampens the fervor of its citizens and mocks their loyalty." Read More Record seekers treated with respect Daily Record: May 12, 2007 The Central Washington University student team that sought public records from various government departments was treated well and mostly got what it was looking for with a minimal hassle. The record-seeking exercise was part of collaboration between The Observer, the student newspaper, and a public affairs reporting class. Staffers for the paper wrote newspaper stories about their experiences, both for the Daily Record and for The Observer. Cynthia Mitchell teaches the public affairs class. She previously worked 10 years at the Atlanta Constitution newspaper as a reporter and editor and at the Wall Street Journal for four years. Read More School Districts Get A For Records Request Daily Record: May 12, 2007 The three Kittitas County school districts audited by student journalists deserved an “A” for complying with Washington’s public records laws. Ellensburg, Kittitas and Cle Elum-Roslyn each complied with requests for disciplinary records against any high school employees over the past two years. Ever since a 2005 state court ruling prompted by the Seattle Times’ “Coaches Who Prey” series, school districts have been required to release information regarding the disciplinary files of their teachers and coaches. Read More Diocese fights S-R's document request Spokesman-Review: May 10, 2007 Attorneys for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane filed legal documents Wednesday in an attempt to block The Spokesman-Review from gaining public access to court records listing priest-abusers and damage claims expected to be paid as part of a $48 million bankruptcy settlement. The newspaper lacks “clean hands” and legal standing to ask a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to release the individual settlement amounts to be set by an independent claims reviewer, diocese attorney Shaun Cross said in a 14-page motion. Read More Idaho Court rules e-mails are public Spokesman-Review: May 5, 2007 The Idaho Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that more than 1,000 e-mails exchanged between Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas and a woman administering a federally funded juvenile court drug program are public records, not exempt from disclosure. Read More Measure will open more records to public scrutiny Yakima Herald Republic April 23, 2007 With all the attention paid to a two-year state budget and other hot-button issues, it was to be expected that one of the major public's-right-to-know measures would sail along under the radar. Sought by Attorney General Rob McKenna, it was one of those important, yet low-profile, proposals that lacked political sex appeal. But sail along it did and now Senate Bill 5435 is on the governor's desk after passing both houses in the legislative session that ended Sunday. Read More On a diet: flabby Open Meetings law The Seattle Times: April 21, 2007 The Legislature wisely is putting the state Open Records Act through a checkup — and maybe on a diet. The governor is expected to sign a bill that will create a committee to give the voter-initiated law a once-over. In 1972, voters overwhelmingly decided citizens needed to have access to public records to remain informed about their governments. The law's bias clearly was that people should be able to inspect documents on demand with only 10 reasonable exemptions embedded in law. But what started out as one of the strongest open-records laws in the nation has grown flabby with more than 300 exemptions. Another 18 were proposed in this legislation session alone, according to state Attorney General Rob McKenna's office. Read More Our View: Time to bring public records law out of darkness Spokane Spokesman-Review: April 19, 2007 After a spotlight has been shining for 35 years, the filament shows signs of burning out. It flickers. It dims. After three and a half decades, Washington's spotlight on open government – the Public Disclosure Act – is not illuminating as brightly as it's supposed to. It needs help. Help may be on the way in the form of the Public Records Exemptions Accountability Committee, which will be created if Gov. Chris Gregoire signs a bill just sent to her by the Legislature. The new entity will probably wind up being known by its cheerier nickname, the Sunshine Committee, but the bulkier, formal title is clearer about what is at stake. Read More In Milton, open the doors and let the people in Tacoma News Tribune: April 18, 2007 The City of Milton is sending mixed messages that don’t reflect well on the city’s commitment to open government. News Tribune reporter Steve Maynard polled city officials last week about whether Milton’s new City Council committee meetings are open to the public. He should have heard a resounding yes; instead he got a grab bag of responses. Some City Council members said anyone is welcome to attend. Others, citing the well-worn excuse that members are more comfortable and get more done when they don’t have to worry about being criticized, said the sessions are closed. Mayor Katrina Asay told Maynard she didn’t know. Read More Congress should return public records to the public The Seattle Times: April 18, 2007 Imagine for a moment that President Hillary Clinton's first act upon taking office is an executive order giving her husband, the former president, unlimited power to keep records of his presidency secret for an indeterminate length of time. Hold the phones! Alert the right-wing blogosphere! Holy Rush O'Reilly! Abuse of power! But wait, wait, it has already been done — in 2001 by President George W. Bush! Not only did he give his dad, the former president, the power to withhold his presidential records, he expanded the power to former vice presidents, of which dad was also one. So Prez Hillary need not act to protect Bubba's secrets — Dubya has already done the job. Read More Governor expected to sign review of Sunshine gaps The Olympian: April 18, 2007 A measure that creates a committee to study more than 300 exemptions to the state's public records act is headed to Gov. Chris Gregoire, who is expected to sign it. The Senate approved Hous | ||||
