Tom Carr, Seattle’s city attorney, is generally not known as an outspoken advocate for greater access to public records. But if his city council has to abide by the rules, then he thinks the Legislature ought to as well .
He’s absolutely right.
Carr, who is also the chairman of the state Sunshine Committee, wants the committee to recommend that state lawmakers eliminate the so-called “legislative privilege” that they’ve used to get around public disclosure laws.
His motion states, “Every other legislative body in the state of Washington is fully subject to the public records act. There is no principled reason why the state legislature should be exempt.”
Lawmakers have crafted an exemption for themselves in a roundabout way. Nothing in state law explicitly says lawmakers have public records immunity. Instead, they rely on the legal definition of “legislative records” which excludes anything received by or under the personal control of individual members of the Legislature.
That means e-mails, letters and memos written on state equipment and by state employees can be withheld, no matter the subject matter. E-mails to lobbyists and other lawmakers are just as off limits as communications with constituents. The exception to this exception: those rare instances when the records can be considered official action by the Senate or House of Representatives.
No other state or local elected officials have such broad protection from public scrutiny in Washington.
Not even the governor. Recently, some statehouse reporters queried the Department of Revenue to find out what tax increase proposals the agency had analyzed for lawmakers and the governor.
Revenue released its communications with the governor’s office, but then repeatedly said it would take more time to fulfill the rest of the request. The reason: Lawmakers had to decide whether they would invoke legislative privilege.
When the records were finally released earlier this month, they came with a caveat. The disclosure was “made in a good faith attempt to be as forthcoming with public documents as possible, and the Senate and House reserve the right to assert such a privilege in the future in response to any request or discovery process as appropriate.”
In other words, the public has no right to these documents, but we’re feeling charitable.
The Sunshine Committee created by the Legislature to get rid of bad exemptions to public disclosure laws postponed its vote on Carr’s motion Tuesday because none of the legislators who serve on committee attended the meeting.
The matter is now on the group’s May agenda, provided the committee still exists then. Legislation is making its way through Olympia to disband the Sunshine Committee in the name of balancing the state budget.
As much as the Sunshine Committee deserves to survive this session, its fate shouldn’t determine what lawmakers do about this fundamental incongruity in public disclosure laws.
Citizens should be able to expect the same level of disclosure from a state lawmaker as they would get from a local school board member. The Legislature doesn’t need an advisory group to point that out – or at least it shouldn’t.
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