Lawmaker warns state Sunshine panel to speed it up or shut down

Washington's Sunshine Committee was created in 2007 with the lofty goal of scouring hundreds of exemptions to the state's Public Disclosure Act to see whether any should be tweaked or eliminated.

But after more than a year of meetings, the group has not found a single exemption worthy of repeal and made suggestions only for a dozen relatively modest changes to the law.

That has one state senator warning the panel to speed up its work — or be shut down.

"I'm calling it right now. This is government waste," said Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park, at a public hearing Tuesday before the Senate Government Operations Committee, which she chairs.

Fairley's proposal, Senate Bill 5119, would kill the Sunshine Committee.

That proposal alarmed open-records advocates, as did three other proposals by Fairley that would allow government agencies to charge substantially more for copies of records and to deny requests from people who haven't paid for past requests.

Fairley estimated the Sunshine Committee has cost $100,000 in staff time and other expenses, with little to show for it.

"This committee was put in place to find the exemptions that didn't need to be there. Two years did you find one?" Fairley said.

Not yet, Sunshine Committee members acknowledged.

But open-records advocates insisted the committee — even if it has not suggested dramatic changes — is performing a valuable service.

Toby Nixon, president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, said he always predicted the Sunshine Committee would preserve the vast majority of exemptions, which allow agencies to withhold certain information from the public. But the review still would do a lot to restore trust in government, he said.

"So far I think they've done good work," Nixon said. "If they abandon this effort now, people are going to justifiably ask what is government trying to hide?"

The Sunshine Committee's latest report to the Legislature, submitted in November, made a dozen recommendations — mostly clarifying the law.

Perhaps the most substantial suggestion so far would make public the identities and qualifications of finalists for some top government jobs before a final hiring decision is made. The Legislature has yet to take up that proposal.

Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, a member of the Sunshine Committee, said the group has found that even seemingly absurd exemptions have some justification — and a constituency.

This is not the first time the Sunshine Committee has been pilloried. Gov. Chris Gregoire's decision to appoint Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr as chairman of the panel was criticized by some open-government advocates who argue Carr has not been friendly to public disclosure.

Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, another Sunshine Committee member, said she agreed with Fairley's frustration at the group's pace, but she said it should not be eliminated. "Perhaps a different chairman, perhaps different goals," she said.

After the hearing, Fairley said she may not schedule her bill for a vote — characterizing it as a "cattle prod" to get the Sunshine Committee moving faster. "It's sitting there, looking at them accusingly," she said.

Perhaps more troubling to open-records advocates were three other bills sponsored by Fairley at the request of local governments that have complained about the costs of complying with public-records requests.

One would allow agencies to charge 25 cents per page for copies of public records, up from 15 cents now. Another would allow governments to charge for every page it copied to fulfill a request, even if the person who requested the records doesn't want all of them. And a third would allow denial of public records to persons who haven't paid for previous requests.

Ramsey Ramerman, an attorney and Sunshine Committee member who represents cities in public-records disputes, said governments need some relief when it comes to the cost of records requests. "We need to draw the line," he said.

Jim Brunner: 206-515-5628 or jbrunner@seattletimes.com