TL;DR - What This Newsletter Is About
Twelve Prefiled Bills on Open Government
Increasing Drumbeat of Warnings About Senate Bill 5920
The Underappreciated Awards for 2025
News Roundup
Concerning Bills Prefiled
Twelve Prefiled Bills On Open Government
I have been updating my open government bill tracker for 2026. The total # of prefiled bills of attention is at twelve (12) as of early January 11. Only four (4) are scored by me as good for open government - one of which is a companion bill meaning it’s introduced in the other legislative chamber, and the other of which protects elected official privacy w/ a media exemption in HB 2333.
Of course, there are some frozen bills from 2025 that may get hearings in 2026. I will be tracking those.
I am strongly considering doing my own scoring of legislators on open government. Depends if Washington Coalition for Open Government will - rather the Coalition did for maximum credibility though.
But at least SB 5920 - by and far the worst bill for open government - does not have a hearing yet. One can only hope SB 5920 will be frozen without a hearing due to a growing drumbeat of concern…
Increasing Drumbeat of Concern About Sen. Lisa Wellman’s SB 5920
First, let’s share Conservative Ladies of America’s take about SB 5920’s very serious threat to open government from a parent’s perspective. Granted I don’t agree with Conservative Ladies on everything, but I feel any truthful warning about SB 5920 is worth sharing:
Also recently the Washington Coalition for Open Government took to Facebook to warn about the bill. As the Coalition explained in a comment:
There's a lot not to like. For starters, the bill would create classes of requesters, with some receiving favorable treatment. Parents and the press would face fewer obstacles than advocacy groups or interested citizens – or anyone from out of state. So much for equal treatment. Recall, we’re talking about access to records owned by the public.
Additionally, as I’ve experienced with Virginia’s ban on out-of-state records requests, this kind of legislation is a threat to legitimate Washington State requestors requesting records out-of-state. Why? Reciprocity.
Also thank goodness for Muckrock who helped me get around Virginia’s ban years ago. Muckrock’s still around!
My TAKE on SB 5920
SB 5920 is nothing more or less than a gateway to opaque governance and decimating if not gutting the Public Records Act. We need to link arms on opposing SB 5920.
The Underappreciated Awards
Signposting Those Wrongfully Ignored
Sadly I believe one of the biggest problems we’re having in journalism is most professional journalists chasing the same stories, hoping for a different angle. Meanwhile, some stories of historic import get ignored.
The goals of the UNDERAPPECIATED AWARDS are to:
a) Signpost historic actors and historic acts that are part of the public records & public meetings story
b) Award those who wouldn’t be otherwise awarded. So mainstream media need not be waiting by the inbox…
There you go. I intend to have a theme for each year so as to spread the appreciation around to more good human Washingtonians. For 2025, the theme is addressing antisemitism in The Best State in the Union head-on. Helps I have Jewish relatives, Jewish contacts and Jewish allies.
There is an intention to have a formal ceremony to hand over the first two awards as plaques. I will keep readers updated…
With that, the first winners of the UNDERAPPRECIATED AWARDS are below…
UNDERAPPRECIATED JOURNALIST: Emily Alhadeff of The Cholent
Emily Alhadeff of The Cholent decided to start a small substack newsletter for the Puget Sound Jewish community. As Emily explains:
Every Jewish community should have a central news outlet separate from organizations and synagogues. As local journalism goes belly-up all over the country, The Cholent keeps the flame alive by illuminating issues that affect our community.
But like many Jewish leaders, Emily had to come face to face with the October 7 Wars and address antisemitism. Especially at the University of Washington, the state’s leading higher education institution.
When antisemitism came to the University of Washington, Emily had to use public records to expose the soft negotiatng of the University’s management. In addition, after the events of 12 September 2024, Emily documented the Jewish American experience starting with,
When recent University of Washington graduate Hannah Nash agreed to speak at the Board of Regents meeting last Thursday, September 12th, about her experience as a Jewish student on campus, she expected some amount of protest. She did not expect the meeting to melt down.
Nash, along with four other speakers, was slated to advocate for Jewish student safety in the new year at the bimonthly UW Board of Regents meeting. But anti-Israel protestors got so rowdy that the Regents decided to pause the meeting. Ultimately, they called it off.
“I’m disappointed,” Nash says of the Regents’ decision to abort the meeting. “I’m not surprised with the response. It’s very on brand for how the university handles these things.”
The Cholent was one of the few media outlets that covered the antisemetic disruption of the public’s representatives governing a multi-billion dollar Washington State Government institution. As the legislative declaration to the Open Public Meetings Act, RCW 42.30.10 states,
The legislature finds and declares that all public commissions, boards, councils, committees, subcommittees, departments, divisions, offices, and all other public agencies of this state and subdivisions thereof exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business. It is the intent of this chapter that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.
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 and informing the people's public servants of their views so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created. For these reasons, even when not required by law, public agencies are encouraged to incorporate and accept public comment during their decision-making process.
As I’ve shared before, I consider the events of 12 September 2024 calls to the colors. A time to take a stand. I also think it’s past time to make the University of Washington Regents have public meetings policies that honor those among her alumni who have made contributions to open government plus take antisemitism seriously.
UNDERAPPRECIATED PUBLIC SERVANTS: 2024-2025 Redmond City Council
The 2024-2025 Redmond City Council led by President Vanessa “Eagle Mom” Kritzer - also a UW alumnus - arguably kept the faith with Heather “Newsbrooke” Brooke, Ph.D and other UW alumni in many ways. From council meetings in the community that were more like town halls, to office hours when the councilmembers were able to accomodate, and yes took on antisemtism as well as campaigning during public comment.
The media has truly neglected this heroic story of a city council urged to act while facing tumolt after tumolt in the commons. Handed a circa 2022 Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) renovation requiring public comment but not defining disruptive. Having been served early on with a warning letter from the PDC to stand up to Avrum (Alex) Tsimerman…
Enter the 2024-2025 Redmond City Council to Sophie Ellis’Bextor’s “Not Giving Up on Love”. The Redmond City Council decided to use a “city business” guideline to make clear that public comments must be relevant to the City Government of Redmond. Also reitrated was the need to cease campaigning during public comment. This tool has resulted in - despite some fearmongering from the political right - only one bad human being excluded in… Tsimerman. Who has run up the score to a 6 month exclusion for… using Redmond City Council facilities to bring up the activities of… King County Elections.
Meanwhile Redmond citizens & friends have been able to freely discuss the following controversial topics:
A noise ordinance’s impacts on an inclusive gun range
Low income housing
Redmond Police activities
The need to close and replace a teen center
Clearly the 2024-2025 Redmond City Council met the moment.
Continued the work that needed doing on the Open Public Meetings Act.
Did what so many public servants have refused to do.
Gave Bellevue the courage to fight Tsimerman also.
That’s just a small slice of the Redmond 2024-2025 legacy, but the slice that is most relevant to open government.
Finally, to quote Navy veteran & former Congresswoman & Jewish-American Elaine Luria to you,
“Living in a free democracy is not self-executing. It depends on leaders and citizens choosing to uphold our values.”
What Next Re: RCW 42.30.240 and City Council Officers?
Let’s be honest shall we? Too few cared about RCW 42.30.240 and seeking oral public comment on selecting city council officers. Instead city attorneys closed ranks and generally argued that some things can have written-only public comment to be voted on before oral public comment. I don’t share this intrepetation of a law that I helped draft and lobby for.
However, I am concerned about suing a jurisdiction I don’t live in, only to be found I lack “standing” as per RCW 34.05.530. I would rather not risk being a lead plaintiff and lose. A loss here could codify such a legal intrepetation - and I’m not up to taking that risk. Now if a Bellevue or Kirkland resident for example wanted to be the lead plaintiff and litigate… I’m eager to help.
It’s up to all of us to defend RCW 42.30 the Open Public Meetings Act. All of us.
NEWS ROUNDUP
Association of Washington Cities reports on new legislation to regulate traffic cameras - and the public records they create. Senator Trudeau also issued a statement explaining her why.
Public records from the City Government of Bellingham show how AI can be abused to insert bias into contracting.
Rep. Peter Abbarno calls out "Senate Bill 5926, which would hide information about child care businesses from public records."
Finally, Iran right now is having her citizens rise up against an oppressive regime, and this Beehiv stands with them - and hopefully soon the US & Israeli militaries to aid ending this antisemetic, mysogenestic, destablizing, terrorist-aiding and nuclear-desiring regime. Please support the people of Iran to ensure… never again means never again.
With that, hope you liked this 1776 word Beehiv!