Well, well, well the same Representative who wants a promotion to the Senate is also charing the House State Government & Tribal Relations committee that will give a hearing to just about any bill working to decimate the Public Records Act… and whack the Open Public Meetings Act.
ChatGPT created image of RCW 42.56 being shredded - the original was my screenshot of the state Public Records Act in PDF format.
Yes, it’s our frienemy Rep. Sharlett Mena. But the problem never has been her, and never will be anywhere near 50% her - or any state legislator. The problem is we have too many voices for opacity and too few voices for openness.
Table of Contents
Let’s start with HB 2661…
HB 2661 is a product of Rep. Skyler Rude. According to a House Republican press release…
A bill to establish a workgroup to identify areas for improvement in the Public Records Act (PRA). House Bill 2661 aims to prevent frivolous and retaliatory requests which creates long delays for other requesters, limiting timely access to records for the rest of the public.
“Public records laws are critical for transparency and they should never be weaponized,” Rude said. “We can protect the public’s right to information while also protecting schools and other public institutions from abusive requests that drain time and resources.”
The problem is that the bill has too many voices for opacity, not enough for openness. Let’s see… four legislators and eight voting members, one from each of the following entities - with pro-openness in bold and (?) in front of potential openness allies:
Washington State Public Records Officers (?)
Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington
Coalition for Open Government
Association of Washington Cities
Washington Schools Risk Management Pool
Washington State Association for Justice (?)
Washington State Attorney General’s Office (?)
Washington Association of School Administrators
This is a gracious list. I have my doubts the Washington State Attorney General’s Office is going to be on our side when it comes to addressing abuse of the public records act as the Attorney General’s Office represents state government bureaucrats.
A better panel would have the Schools Risk Management Pool and Association of School Administrators pick one representative and no membership for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. But that’s me.
Then there’s - to the song “Trigger” by Agnes - the fact the Public Records Act has too many exemptions. Over 200 since 2012 already according to the Washington Coalition for Open Government:
Graphic: Washington Coalition for Open Government
Also worth adding that Rep. Rude several years ago advocated to mandatory record only school board meetings - and his bill was signed. Leaving at the “encouraged” level city councils and transit boards, for starters.
For all of those concerns, I have signed in CON on the bill. There are already enough verbal testifiers. Please just sign in con on HB 2661 before 12:30 PM Tuesday.
HB 2520 of Grave Concern
Granted, I had some more moderate thoughts about HB 2520 but the Washington Coalition for Open Government is nothing short of in the words of Washington Coalition for Open Government’s Collette Weeks, “lacking clear language”. I agree with her that SB 6000 does have those “safeguards”. Others amplified this message of concern for the House State Government & Tribal Committee in various ways. The bill did not recieve executive action this Friday. Perhaps because of Chris Ingallis’ King 5 YouTube short getting under the skin of state legislators and staff…
At this point, readers are encouraged to please go HERE and let your legislators know where you stand on HB 2520. The cut-off is 5 PM Wednesday, Feb. 4.