Oregon, Washington consider public records overhaul

from Oregon Public Broadcasting:

The Attorneys General of Oregon and Washington are asking state lawmakers to make public documents more accessible.

A pair of bills in Salem and a hearing Thursday in Olympia come in response to critics who say obtaining government records is too expensive and takes too long.

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger wants to create strict deadlines for public agencies to respond to records requests.

His proposal would also cap the amount that agencies can charge, and it would reduce the types of information that are exempt from public disclosure requirements.

Read the rest here.

Justice Scalia Says Democracy Requires "Civic Courage"

"Trust but verify, I like that," said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anontin Scalia during the oral arguments in the case of Doe v. Reed, a case to decide whether the signature petitions to overturn Washington state's R-71 are public records and can be disclosed.

Justice Scalia's statements hint that the state public records law will prevail. He noted that voting was public for the first century of U.S. history, "you either did it raising your hand or by voice, or later, you had a ballot that was very visibly red or blue so that people knew which party you were voting for -- the fact is that running a democracy takes a certain amount of civic courage. And the First Amendment does not protect you from criticism or even nasty phone calls when you exercise your political rights to legislate, or to take part in the legislative process."

Click here for more, including transcripts of the oral arguments.

For more background on the case, click here.

Washington Attorney General Argues No Right to Privacy for Petition Signers

Gearing up for the April 28th hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court over the attempt to block the release of names of people who signed petitions to negate an expansion of gay rights, lawyers for Washington state filed briefs arguing that people who sign petitions have no right to privacy.

In September U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle ruled that releasing the petition names would violate the individual's constitutional right to engage in political speech anonymously. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overruled the lower court's decision, declaring that petition signing is not an anonymous act and allowing disclosure of the signer's identities.

The U.S. Supreme Court stayed the decision pending its ruling.

Legal scholars anticipate the decision could have far-reaching effect on the state's initiative and referendum process as well as other open government laws, such as the disclosure of political campaign contributors.

Read more here.

Proposed Law Riddled with Misguided Symbolism

A great editorial from The Seattle Times on the misguided symbolism of a proposed law that would exempt personal information on law-enforcement employee's from the state's Public Disclosure Act. The proposed law is redundant of existing state law that already protects public employees' home addresses, home phone numbers, and Social Security numbers.

The House Majority Leader says the legislation should be enacted for its symbolism, as a gesture of appreciation for the law enforcement community, which has lost police officers in recent killings.

Washington Senate Votes to Make Voter Petitions Public Records

Washington Senators voted 28-20 to make voter petitions public records, including the names and addresses of people who sign initiatives and referenda.

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court said it will decide whether the people who signed Referendum 71 petitions should have their names publicly disclosed. Referendum 71 sought to overturn an expanded gay rights law.

For more about the bill, click here.

Editorial: "Public Records are Public Records"

Recent assaults on police officers have spawned proposed bills in the Washington legislature that would prohibit a law enforcement officer's month and year of birth and official photograph from being disclosed to the public, although the news media would still have access to it.

The Spokesman-Review editorializes that such a strategy is an unacceptable precedent and that the media should not have selective privileges. Instead, public records should remain public records.

For more, click here.

Washington Considers Removing Officials' Photographs from Public Records

In the wake of the deaths of four Lakewood, Washington police officers, the state's House and Ways and Means Committee voted to remove from public records photographs and birth dates of police, court and corrections employees.

Newspaper representatives say the bill would make it harder for the press not only to investigate where tax money goes and what lies in officials' pasts, but also to get images from the cameras that record police traffic stops or violent incidents inside jails or prisons.

Read more here.

Washington Open Records Office Bill Dies in Committee

A Washington Office of Open Records won't happen this year.

A bill to create a dispute resolution center for open government issues died in committee last Friday. It carried a $1.3 million price tag at a time when the state government faces a budget deficit.

Read more about it here.

U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Washington Referendum 71 Petition Dispute

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear Doe v. Reed, the case to determine whether the names of Washington voters who signed a ballot petition for Referendum 71 can be made public. The referendum sought to overturn expanded rights for same-sex couples, and supporters of gay rights filed a public records request for the names of those who signed the petition. Referendum sponsors objected, saying the signers would be harassed.

Meanwhile a Washington state legislative committee is considering competing bills over the dispute. One would provide an exemption to the state's Public Records Act for the names and addresses on initiative or referendum petitions; the other would declare them public records.

Read more here.

Washington Open Records Office Gains Gubernatorial Support

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire says she supports the creation of a new Office of Open Records, but doubts that it can happen this year given the state's $2.6 billion budget deficit. The proposed Office of Open Records would serve as a dispute resolution center for open government issues. While Gregoire said the proposed office's $1.3 million price tag is too steep for the state now, she said state and local governments should be given more training on open government laws.

Read more here.

Redaction Run Amok!

The Puget Sound Business Journal has been seeking internal communications between Washington Mutual (WaMu) and federal regulators, including the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).

Of interest are internal emails, which the news organization hopes will help explain why regulators seized the bank in September 2008 even though WaMu appeared to meet regulatory standards for operating banks.

The results of the FOIA requests have been less than forthcoming. OTS denied the request in full, citing FOIA exemptions that protect records concerning the operations of financial institutions and to protect inter-agency communication. Meanwhile, the FDIC produced emails, but they were so heavily redacted as to be meaningless. In doing so, the FDIC relied on FOIA exemption 8, which allows the government to redact information related to the regulation or supervision of financial institutions.

To see the emails, click here.

Landmark Payout in Washington State for Public Records Law Violations

The Washington Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) will pay $525,000 to three girls abused by their foster father for wrongfully withholding public records from them.  

The payout stems from a lawsuit filed by three girls who endured years of abuse at the hands of their foster father, despite complaints filed with the state's Child Protective Services.  When the girls' attorney noticed documents missing in their records request, they sued for violations of the open records laws.   A King County Superior Court judge agreed that DSHS had violate the Public Records Act by improperly withholding records from the girls.  

DSHS maintains that it did not intentionally withhold any records, but that records were missing due to technical errors in response to a voluminous records request.

The payout is the largest sum DSHS has paid in a public records case.

Get more information here. 

State Task Force Recommends Office of Open Records for Washington

A task force created by Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna and Democratic state Auditor Brian Sonntag unanimously recommended the Washington Legislature create a new Office of Open Records to handle public records disputes out of court. The state office would be modeled after the offices created in Pennsylvania and Connecticut.  

Although the task force unanimously recommended the new state office, they disagreed on issues of management and leadership for a new office and any appellate procedures after the state office's decision. The cost of a new office also remains unknown, and could create a large hurdle for the state legislature. Washington faces a budget shortfall of up to $1.7 billion in January.  

Get more information here.

Update: U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Release of Referendum 71 Petitioners

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has temporarily blocked Washington state officials from releasing the Referendum 71 ballot petitions.  Referendum 71 is a ballot initiative asking Washington voters to approve or reject the state's law that grants domestic partners the same legal rights as married heterosexuals.   

Kennedy's order will remain in effect while he considers a request by a pro-marriage group that asked him to reverse the appellate court ruling, which had order the names released.  

Get more information here. 

No Right to Access Judicial Records or Investigations in Washington

The Washington Supreme Court ruled that state open records laws do not extend to judicial records or investigations into allegations of judicial misconduct.  

The case centered on a February 2008 public records request seeking records and correspondence related to the resignation of Federal Way Municipal Court Judge Colleen Hartl. While the city provided some documentation, it refused to release the correspondence of the presiding judge relating to the investigation.   

For more on this decision, click here. 

Follow Up: Ninth Circuit Orders Release of Referendum 71 Petitions in Washington

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision of a Thurston County Superior Court judge granting a temporary restraining order against Sam Reed concerning compliance with a public records request for copies of past initiative petitions, saying that order relied upon an incorrect legal standard.  That means the Washington's Referendum 71 petitions must be released pursuant to a public records request.   

Referendum 71 is an effort to overturn a Washington bill granting state registered domestic partners all rights, responsibilities and obligations granted or imposed by state law on married couples.

Click here for the Ninth Circuit's order.  

Release of Washington Referendum 71 Initiative Signatures Stayed Pending Appeal

Until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals hears the dispute over Referendum 71, an effort to overturn a bill granting state registered domestic partners all rights, responsibilities and obligations granted or imposed by state law on married couples, state election officials cannot release the signatures and addresses of the people who signed 11 statewide initiatives ruled Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks.

The Olympian reports:  "Hicks said there is a clear conflict between the state Supreme Court's likely interpretation of state public-records law and what U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle ruled last month in the dispute over releasing names and signatures of voters who signed Referendum 71."

Get the full report here. 

Poof! Making Virtual Information Disappear

A team of University of Washington computer scientists have developed a system to make electronic communications, like e-mail, Facebook posts and chat messages, automatically self-destruct and become irretrievable.  Much better than any "delete" button, the program would remove content from all websites, inboxes, outboxes, backup site and home computers. 

The prototype is called Vanish, and it would place a time limit on text uploaded to any website through a web browser.  

Get more details about the project here. 

Washington Judge Orders City Report Withheld and Destroyed

Without citing any legal exemptions from Washington's Public Records Act, Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Steven Mura ruled that a Bellingham city report that was critical of a local construction firm be blocked from public disclosure and destroyed if his decision isn't appealed within 30 days.  

The Bellingham Herald requested a copy of the report, but the construction firm argued the report contained false information that would be damaging to its business.  An arbitrator had earlier found that the city committed "substantial breaches of contract" with the construction firm, which had been hired to install drainage and sprinkler pipe, new ball field soil and turf.

Get more information here.

Seattle Officers' Names Released to Citizen Accountability Group

The city of Seattle didn't violate its labor contract with the police guild when it released police disciplinary files to a citizen oversight panel, according to a state labor board ruling.

The Seattle Office of Professional Accountability Review Board reviews complaints against police officers and reports to the City Council regarding trends in misconduct cases or recommendations for training.  Until the City Council passed an ordinance in 2006, the review board only had access to files with the names of officers redacted.  

The Seattle Police Officer's Guild challenged the ordinance and the release of unredacted disciplinary files on the grounds that its contract required confidentiality of the officers' names. 

The Public Employment Relations Commission first ruled in favor of the police guild, but the city's appeal to the full three-member commission overturned that decision.  The guild could appeal to the Superior Court.

For more details, click here.