Open season on open records
OLYMPIA – Here are some of Washington’s government secrets: Preliminary drafts. Pesticide-poisoning reports. Complaints about embalmers. And the names of van-pool riders.
Thirty-five years after Washington voters included open-records rules in a broader campaign-finance initiative, I-276, that measure’s short list of exemptions has grown to include at least 360 categories of documents the government can withhold from citizens. The exemptions today cover everything from ginseng growers’ whereabouts to complaints about doctors and judges.
Last week, a state task force began what one member described as the “gargantuan” task of reviewing those exemptions to see whether they’re justified. Along the way, the group hopes to forge some general principles about what should be public and what shouldn’t.
“Any kind of law we put into place at some point deserves some sort of review to see if it’s working,” said Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn. “Not everything is going to be perfect.”
The reviews are expected to take years. But the group – which includes lawmakers, attorneys and journalists – is hoping to start making recommendations to state lawmakers by the end of this year. At least one meeting is expected in Spokane, probably next year.
“It’s a different tone, certainly, in Spokane than in Olympia or Seattle,” said health educator and longtime tribal counsel Candy Jackson, the sole local person in the group. “There’s got to be some interest.”
The review comes at the request of Attorney General Rob McKenna, an open-government advocate who lobbied lawmakers to create the task force. His office is posting all the group’s documents online at www.atg.wa.gov/opengovern ment/sunshine.aspx.
When voters overwhelmingly passed I-276 in 1972, they specified 10 categories of documents that government could deny to the public. Among them: personal information about students and welfare recipients and tax information that could be useful to business competitors.
But every year since, groups, businesses and associations have lobbied lawmakers to add more exemptions. McKenna has publicly complained about this, comparing the gradual build-up of exemptions to the accretion of a coral reef: You can barely see the growth, but it’s very hard to remove.
Government lawyers say there are often good reasons for withholding documents from the public. Exemptions protect citizens’ privacy, shield whistleblowers from retaliation, help deter identity theft and protect victims of violent crime from stigma.
Even the most-mocked exemption – the one shielding American ginseng growers from public disclosure – was based on a serious concern, said task force member Ramsey Ramerman, a private attorney who often handles government-records cases. Ginseng plants are endangered, he said, and there were fears about poaching the high-priced root.
“There may be a legitimate interest, no matter how funny ginseng may seem,” Ramerman said.
American Civil Liberties Union lobbyist Jennifer Shaw – one of a few members of the public who testified at the group’s first meeting Tuesday – said that government transparency is key for accountability. But there’s a “constant tension,” she said, between open government and the right to privacy. One reason, she said, is that today’s government is collecting far more information about citizens and businesses than in the past.
Toby Nixon, a former state lawmaker, also urged the panel to “think big, think bold” as it reviews exemptions. One of the best ways to deal with the privacy concern, he said, is for government to stop collecting much of that information.
One of Gov. Chris Gregoire’s appointees to the panel – Seattle City Attorney Thomas Carr – drew fire from some open-government advocates, who criticized his official track record on the issue.
“Good government is open government,” Carr said this week. “One thing people tend to forget is that a lawyer doesn’t necessarily share the views of their clients.”