Olympic Peninsula lawmakers are still trying to defend the indefensible SB 6617, the public records bill passed earlier this year but vetoed by the governor.
In the recent town hall in Forks, they continued glossing over the bill’s obvious defects (“Legislators talk about public records legislation,” PDN, March 25).
Sen. Kevin Van De Wege stated that legislators did not exempt themselves from the Public Records Act in SB 6617 because they were already exempt.
Many disagree, including a Superior Court judge and the Washington state attorney general.
Rep. Steve Tharinger complained that hiring additional staff to handle public records requests would “disrupt the whole process.”
Wrong.
Legislators could protect the legislative function by exempting themselves from disclosure responsibilities during sessions with the proviso that all requested records be disclosed immediately thereafter.
Tharinger also relies on constituent privacy concerns to justify nondisclosure.
There is already a privacy exemption in the Public Records Act.
If that exemption needs some slight tweaking for legislative purposes, lawmakers can include limited, focused language to that effect.
And why in the world is Tharinger complaining about media trying to get information for news stories?
The Public Records Act does not allow government to keep the public’s business secret because some public official wants to control the news or otherwise dictate what is and is not an acceptable reason for any citizen to request public documents.
Lawmakers apparently haven’t learned a thing.
I suspect they’ll soon be back with another totally unacceptable bill that ignores the transparency required by our state’s sunshine laws since they were adopted in the 1970s.
Cheryl Neilson,
Olympia