Despite being scolded by the public in March, legislators apparently have not learned the relevant lesson regarding public records. Three months after agreeing to form a task force to consider the issue, no task force is in sight. And despite being rebuked by residents and Gov. Jay Inslee, lawmakers are taking the issue to the state Supreme Court.
To be clear, Washington’s Public Records Act, passed by voters in 1972 and revised several times since, should apply to legislators and should be regarded as a staple of open and responsive government. Lawmakers should willingly be held to the same standards as the governor, state executives, city councils and school boards.
Instead, legislators long have contended that the law does not apply to them. They have used that position to keep records such as government-related emails, daily calendars, texts and reports of sexual harassment from the public. Last year, a media coalition led by The Associated Press sued to make those records public, and in January a Thurston County judge ruled largely in favor of the media.
Rather than adhere to the law, legislators tried to change it. They passed a bill that would exempt past records and would limit the scope of future records available to the public. The fact that the bill went from inception to passage in less than 48 hours with minimal public input added to the scorn. After several daily newspapers (including The Columbian) wrote front-page editorials decrying the action, more than 20,000 Washington residents contacted Inslee urging him to veto the bill. On March 1, he did.
The importance of applying the Public Records Act to lawmakers should be clear. If a legislator is meeting with, say, energy company representatives while considering an energy bill, voters have a right to know; if a lawmaker is exchanging emails with, say, members of a teachers’ union while considering education funding, voters have a right to know; if a lawmaker has been accused of sexual harassment in the workplace and has reached a settlement, voters have a right to know.
Those standards are applied to elected officials throughout the state, and they should be applied in the Capitol. Working to exempt legislators from public records amounts to subterfuge that foments suspicion about how government conducts its business.
On Tuesday, state Supreme Court Commissioner Michael Johnston signed a ruling that advances lawmakers’ appeal of the circuit court ruling to the Supreme Court, bypassing the Court of Appeals. Johnston determined that the case eventually would end up before the Supreme Court, writing, “a prompt review of these legal issues will likely save judicial resources in the long run.”
That is a reasonable action, but lawmakers would be wise to drop their appeal and adhere to the will of the people. They also would be wise to form the long-awaited task force to examine the issue. Instead, the promises made in March appear at this point to have been empty.
Most important, voters should hold legislators accountable in November. Eight Clark County legislators voted in favor of Senate Bill 6617 to exempt themselves from public scrutiny (only Rep. Vicki Kraft, R-Vancouver, opposed the bill), providing voters with some pointed questions to ask incumbents and challengers during campaign season.
Washington legislators long have been on the wrong side of history when it comes to public records. It is past time for them to learn the appropriate lesson.
