Change Washington law to open government

THE state Legislature should blow away the clouds gathering over open-government practices in recent years and follow the clear recommendation of its own so-called Sunshine Committee.

Officially known as the Public Records Accountability Executive Committee, the panel voted 7-3 Wednesday, urging the Legislature to pass legislation to raise the shades on what has become a state Supreme Court-condoned practice of excessively hiding information from the public.

The panel recommends lawmakers more narrowly define when government agencies can cite privilege for attorney-client communications or work — definitions that have expanded over the past few years thanks to sliver-thin majorities on the state's highest court.

In the 2004 Hangartner v. City of Seattle ruling, the state Supreme Court ruled government agencies can claim attorney-client privilege to withhold documents from the public — even when there is no threat of litigation. Before, the standard was an authentic threat of litigation had to exist.

In the 2007 Soter v. Cowles Publishing ruling, the court agreed the Spokane School District could keep secret its investigation into the death of a student from a peanut allergy because it handed the probe off to its attorneys. In other words, the public gets no accounting of what happened or what steps are taken to prevent another tragedy.

Those interpretations are too broad. The court majority forgot the job of government lawyers is to look out for the interests not only of the elected officials or agency bureaucrats who hired them, but for the broader constituency of citizens who pay the salaries or per diems of the whole lot.

Voting against the recommendation were Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, Ramsey Ramerman, a public-sector lawyer, and Roselyn Marcus, a state government employee.

The Legislature established the Sunshine Committee to look at the proliferating exemptions to the Open Public Records Act — there are more than 300 hung on the original 1971 law, which started out with just 10.

The committee should be commended for tackling this issue, arguably the most controversial — and certainly most vexing — for open-government advocates. Lawmakers should follow the advice of their panel.