Executive Summary
Concerning Bills Appear
But One Bill Promises to Add A Bit of Transparency
A Suggestion to WashCOG… Second in A Series
A Personal Note
Concerning Bills Prefiled - Like SB 5920
Already Several Concerning Bills Prefiled
A list of the worst of worst in my humble opinion (IMHO):
SB 5920 prime sponsored by Senator Lisa Wellman (D-41) with Senator Nobles co-sponosring as of 27 Dec. is without a doubt the most problematic of bills prefiled for the 2026 legislative season. Let’s start with this text in the actual bill:
(b)(i) Except for requests by news media, parents or guardians of students enrolled in the district, or district employees, school districts may establish a supplementary cost schedule, in addition to any determination of costs under (a) of this subsection, for requests that are overly burdensome in terms of amount of information, staff time, materials produced, or other administrative or overhead costs.
(ii) A school district must notify the requestor when such a cost schedule would apply, provide a total of the costs, and receive acceptance from the requestor for the charges before processing the request.
(iii) The supplementary cost schedule may be based on the amount of information, staff time, materials produced, or other administrative or overhead costs. Costs must be limited to the direct costs of processing the request. Processing costs may include costs associated with staff time used to locate, compile, produce, review, or copy records, including reviewing and responding to the request. Any charge or rate applied for the use of staff time may not exceed the hourly rate of the staff fulfilling the request.
But SB 5920 gets worse:
(9)(a) Except for requests made by news media, parents or guardians of students enrolled in the district, or district employees, school districts may petition a court to:
(i) Deny requests that are vague, overly broad, or unreasonable in scope, including requests that do not have enough information and requests that contain an excessive amount of information or require more than a reasonable effort to clarify; or
(ii) Issue a protective order against a request found to have sought records with the intent to substantially interrupt the performance of a government function. The court may consider a requestor's pattern or history of requests when resolving a complaint.
(b) Prior to petitioning a court under (a) of this subsection, a school district must notify the requestor of the district's determination and provide the requestor with an opportunity to clarify or narrow the request. If the requestor fails to respond after 30 days or provides a response that does not clarify or narrow the request, a school district may petition a court as provided under this subsection.
Then this bill - among other problematic issues like attempting to slow down responses to out-of-state requestors - decides to try to define news media. Here’s their proposed definition of news media:
"News media" means any newspaper, magazine or other periodical, book publisher, news agency, wire service, radio or television station or network, cable or satellite station or network, or audio or audiovisual production company, or any entity that is in the regular business of news gathering and disseminating news or information to the public by any means including, but not limited to, print, broadcast, photographic, mechanical, internet, or electronic distribution.
But SB 5920 is not the only prefiled bill attacking public records access. SB 5926, also prime sponsored by Senator Wellman but without cosponsors as of December 27, is regarding, “Expanding the public records exemption for personal information of family home child care providers to all licensed or certified child care providers.” Reading the bill, the bill seems to do what the tin says. Then there’s HB 2176 sponsored by Representatives Thai, Mena, Parshley, and Ryu as of December 27, 2025 for the purpose of, “Exempting information in collaborative drug therapy agreements from disclosure under the public records act.” There is however an exemption to the exemption as per below:
“Collaborative drug therapy agreement may be disclosed if that collaborative drug therapy agreement is the basis of an order or stipulation finding misconduct and resulting in a disciplinary action against a license holder regulated by a disciplining authority identified in RCW 18.130.040, including all license holders regulated by the pharmacy quality assurance commission. If a collaborative drug therapy agreement is disclosed pursuant to this subsection, personally identifiable information contained in such collaborative drug therapy agreement, other than that of a disciplined license holder, is confidential and may not be disclosed under this chapter.”
That’s a wrap on the concerning prefiled legislation so far. Now here’s my take on bills prefiled up to December 27…
MY TAKE: We need to stop SB 5920
SB 5920 is nothing more or less than a gateway to opaque governance and decimating if not gutting the Public Records Act. I’m sure some folks have thoughts about the attempt to define news media.
But here is the big question: If this passes, how long until the previously mentioned Association of Washington Cities (AWC) decides to request to extend this to cover their clients, counties, and all those federated boards like… transit boards, the Puget Sound Regional Council, and the Sound Cities Association - discussed in a previous Beehiv?
As I told my State Senator, I have deep concerns with SB 5920. Here are my top 5:
1) Why only school districts get this treatment when processing public records? Conversely, how long until legislation to expand to other governmental bodies?
2) Why enable school districts to charge more for public records?
3) Why does this not cover minors filing their own public records requests? Fair question.
4) Who and why made Senators Wellman & Nobles wise enough to decide what news media is and is not?
5) Why make easier for school districts to litigate to block public records release?
The other bills mentioned above do maybe a tenth of the damage SB 5920 will if enacted into law as-is. That’s why it’s so important to make outreach to legislators to stop this… well-intentioned abomination.
But One Bill Promises to Add Transparency…
This is HB 2200 by Rep. Joshua Penner regarding, “Increasing access to data related to the safety and stability of residential settings for individuals with developmental disabilities.” The combat veteran Marine and Mayor of Orting also led the charge to save Rainier School.
Reading the actual proposed bill, the goal is to,
Establish an ongoing data dashboard to ensure that taxpayers and families have access to an honest, apples-to-apples comparison of safety and stability outcomes across all residential service settings.
One of those good bills that hopefully passes quickly and unanimously, IMHO. There are also two other bills that are not as significant but do help with transparency in SB 5926 and SB 5863 around state historical records. That’s for a future beehiv in 2026.
A Suggestion to WashCOG… Second in a Series
I could write about me and my gripes with the Coalition’s award process. That was the initial plan. But I’m not a selfish person and I’m working on wordsmithing this particular gripe as having genuine concern for WashCOG and its mission, not just concern for self and the family behind the open government advocate going into occassional danger.
Instead, I’m going to suggest that WashCOG start an annual literary prize please. Not for short-form journalism like the Kenneth F. Bunting Award due Jan 16. but for books about open government in Washington State. Books like not just Heather “Newsbrooke” Brooke, Ph.D’s trilogy. but also Backroom Deals in Our Backyards by Miranda S. Spivack.
The hope is that a literary prize can signpost important books to students of open government. Additionally, a literary prize can inspire authors to cover open government in the Best State in the Union: Washington.
There you go.
A Personal Note
I’ve decided to set a goal of a 8 AM on a Sunday bimonthy delivery of this Beehiv blog/newsletter as a minimum requirement. That means I’m working away the preceding Saturday evening - and happy to do so as long as fellow Washingtonian open government advocates find this of service. I have at least committed to publish on these dates:
Jan. 10 or 11 - Washington State Legislature starts Jan. 12
Jan. 24 or 25
Feb. 7 or 8 - policy committee cutoff is Feb. 4 with fiscal committee cutoff Feb. 9, and house of orgin cutoff is Feb. 17
Feb. 21 or 22 - Feb. 25 is policy committee cutoff in the opposite chamber of where the legislation was launched
Mar 7 or 8 - March 6 is opposite house cutoff to either pass out of the opposite chamber of where the legislation was launched or the legislation dies.
Mar 21 or 22 - Wrap-up from Sine Die on March 12
I do ask that you please share these Beehivs and get the subscription number up to… an amount I feel comfortable publicly sharing. It’s hard to give up two Saturday nights a month as I started writing at 7 PM and finish writing at 1 AM and hope that I am making an impact.
I also admit that I am doing this Beehiv work to raise my profile as an open government advocate. Not just a “jet hugger” who takes photos and writes the occassional letter to the editor or op-ed on the subject of NAS Whidbey Island. To that end, I aim to raise the profile of other Washingtonians and prolific former Washingtonians - obviously Heather “Newsbrooke” Brooke, Ph.D. - working on open government as new bodies of work come out.
In lieu of “Other News” at 1,500~ words in, I’m going to share below a spreadsheet of my active public records requests. Some of which stem from being a budding drone pilot, some of which arise from the recent flooding and some of which from the Tsimerman Wars & possible Open Public Meetings Act/OPMA action.
Page 1 of 2 of my active public records requests as of 28 Dec. 2025
Page 2 of 2 of my active public records requests as of 28 Dec. 2025
One may also notice language of, “ALL records means that this public records request includes but is not limited to all emails, text messages, Microsoft Teams chats, Slack messages, Facebook posts, and any other communication platforms used by [jurisdiction] employees AND elected officials.” You can thank Public Records Officer Podcast for that language ensuring all = all.
Finally, my last Beehiv of 2025, 1776 words in: Happy America 250! Let’s keep on working to enforce and defend the Open Public Meetings Act and the Public Records Act in 2026! To get started, I did make a suggestion to help uphold the Open Public Meetings Act and public comment before council officers get elected.