Gregoire refuses to release some "Sunshine Committee" names

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Gov. Chris Gregoire has refused to reveal the identities of some people who weren't picked for seats on the state's new "Sunshine Committee."

Gregoire, responding to an Associated Press public records request, has kept secret several resumes, letters and e-mail exchanges detailing unsuccessful applicants to the committee.

In her reply, the Democratic governor cited an exemption to public records law that says applications for public employment can be kept secret.

The Sunshine Committee's job is to sort through the more than 300 exemptions to the state's Public Records Act and prepare a report by Nov. 15 in which it will recommend that the Legislature keep, repeal or amend particular exemptions.

Open government experts scoffed at Gregoire's reasoning, noting that compensation for Sunshine Committee service is limited to travel reimbursements that several members don't actually qualify for.

"That doesn't make them employees of the state," said Toby Nixon, acting president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government and a former state legislator.

"I don't think what the governor is doing in terms of withholding these documents, claiming they are applications for employment, is right at all," Nixon said. "And I think that the word ironic is a very good word."

But Melynda Campbell, a Gregoire legal assistant, said the administration considers every person appointed to a board or commission by the governor a public employee under the Public Records Act exemption.

Under that reasoning, Campbell said, people who submit themselves as candidates for a panel such as the Sunshine Committee must have their identities kept secret.

"I could be out applying for jobs all over the place and not want my boss to know about it," Campbell said. "You just have to consider their privacy."

Potential appointees recommended by a third party, however, don't have that same protection, Campbell said.

One member of the committee — John Hughes, editor and publisher of The Daily World in Aberdeen — was surprised that his service could be construed as state employment.

"Even if that were some little nuance of the law, it would still make me uncomfortable," Hughes said Thursday. "I've given 41 years of my life to the Fourth Estate, and we're supposed to be watchdogs.

"What an interesting and ironic twist to the Sunshine Committee's work," he added.

Gregoire spokeswoman Holly Armstrong, who said she wasn't familiar with the legal reasoning behind the records denial, said such disagreements point to the reason for the Sunshine Committee itself.

"This is, in effect, why we have a Sunshine Committee, to go back and see what this law means, and see why we need to revise or clean up this law," Armstrong said.

Gregoire appointed six of the panel's 13 members, and also chose the group's chairman.

The committee also includes four state lawmakers, two people appointed by Attorney General Rob McKenna, and one person selected by state Auditor Brian Sonntag.

The AP had requested all communications received by the governor's office regarding appointments to the committee.

In response, Gregoire provided the AP with several letters and e-mails that dealt with potential appointees, and at least two resumes.

But the governor withheld 10 documents, including letters, resumes and e-mails about the appointment process.

The state law keeping "applications for public employment" from public view was cited in each of those 10 cases, and the administration said all materials that weren't released dealt with people who advocated for their own appointment but did not win seats on the committee.

Gregoire also faced criticism from open government activists over her selection of Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr as the group's chairman.

During the committee's first meeting this week, however, Carr responded to accusations that he has been too eager to support government secrecy, saying "One thing people tend to forget is that a lawyer doesn't necessarily share the views of their clients. A lawyer does a job."

On Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Tim Ford, who is a member of the committee, was compiling McKenna's response to a similar AP records request.

Ford said he had no intention of withholding any such records.

"And even if somebody told me, 'Well, there might be this exemption here,' I would waive it," Ford said.

State Auditor Brian Sonntag also was more forthcoming than Gregoire.

Sonntag handed over correspondence, a cover letter and a resume from Stephen L. Johnson, an attorney and former state senator. Only personal information such as addresses and phone numbers was withheld, pursuant to an exemption in open records law.

Sonntag ultimately appointed Seattle Post-Intelligencer Associate Publisher Kenneth Bunting to the committee.