Committee to tackle open-records law

OLYMPIA — Now they get down to business.

Washington’s Sunshine Committee, a panel of experts and insiders charged with strengthening the state’s open records laws, is ready to delve into its first substantial bit of work this week.

At a meeting Tuesday in Ellensburg, the 13-member committee will begin scrutinizing some of the nearly 300 exemptions from the state law that calls for the free flow of government information.

They’re not expected to get too deep into that list before suggesting an opening round of changes next month.

But committee members such as House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, say they’re eager to start combing through the ever-growing list of official government secrets.

“Now that we’re going get into the meat and the substance of it, I think we’re going to learn that some of these are just nutzoid, and some of them have some real reasons,” Kessler said.

First, a few basics.

When voters approved the Public Records Act by initiative in 1972, there were only 10 tightly drawn exceptions to the general policy that all government records should be readily available to the public.

In the years since, lawmakers have liberally plumped the list of government documents that taxpayers aren’t allowed to see.

The Sunshine Committee is in charge of combing through that list of exemptions and recommending whether they should stay, go, or be tweaked. Although the Legislature has the final say, some senior lawmakers are members of the committee.

They’ve chosen four exemptions to start the review, attempting to go after some “low-hanging fruit” along with weightier questions.

The first up for review are information on ginseng purchase and sales, legislative records, infant mortality data and state employment applications.

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