Editorial: Sonntag defender of accessible government
While many state officials might be secretly cheering, advocates for open and accountable government are saddened by the news that Washington state Auditor Brian Sonntag has decided not to seek re-election next year. For a time it looked as if he might run for the governor’s office, but on Sept. 12 he announced that he would be leaving public service altogether.
In a state where voters had to take the lead in adopting a Public Records Act and performance audits because of foot-dragging by legislators, it’s imperative that it have some leaders who guard these public oversight missions zealously.
For the past two decades, Sonntag has been a sterling example of such a public servant.
As we’ve discovered over the years, it doesn’t matter whether state laws favor openness and accountability when public officials regard them as nuisances. Indeed, since the Public Records Act was adopted in 1972, legislators have adopted more than 300 exemptions. And even though Sonntag’s audits have pointed the way toward rational government spending reforms, lawmakers have not rushed to implement some of them.
Instead, legislators have put a budget-cutting target on the auditor’s office. Never mind that it was a Sonntag suggestion of a one-time tax amnesty program that netted the Legislature a sorely needed $321 million in revenue last spring.
Gratitude, it would seem, is in short supply in Olympia.
Whoever replaces Sonntag must be made of stern stuff, because he is not widely beloved by officeholders. It was Sonntag, along with Attorney General Rob McKenna, who led the charge to form the Sunshine Committee, an open government task force. He has championed many sensible ideas, such as recording executive sessions to ensure that governmental bodies are not abusing open records laws. Unfortunately, fierce lobbying from state and local officials has fended off this reform.
Nonetheless, he has received numerous public service awards for his efforts to expand accountability, ferret out waste and inefficiencies and to grant the public greater access to government information. He has been recognized nationally by the National Association of Government Accountants and Governing Magazine.
Sonntag told the Everett Herald that he is driven to fulfill the wishes of those who wrote and adopted the state constitution. “Founders of this state wanted the auditor to be a very populist, citizen-centric type of office and we’ve tried to make it that,” he said.
In doing so, Sonntag has raised the profile and importance of his position. In turn, the voters have rewarded him with expanded auditing powers via a 2005 initiative and increasingly wider margins of victory.
Sonntag probably could’ve held the office for as long as he liked. He has set a high bar for would-be successors.