The public's right to know what government officials are up to is under attack - again. This time in the state Legislature.
Last spring, a 5-4 vote in the state Supreme Court made it acceptable to withhold records from public scrutiny, as long as the records had anything to do with communications between a lawyer and a government agency or official.
Prior to that case, Hangartner v. City of Seattle, attorney-client privilege applied only if the sought-after records concerned "completed, existing or reasonably anticipated litigation." The Supreme Court also ruled in the same case that public information was exempt from disclosure if the requests for it were over-broad.
The ill-conceived ruling flies in the face of the Public Disclosure Act and related court cases that say the best government is a transparent government.
Now, working with bipartisan House and Senate leadership, Attorney General Rob McKenna has drafted House Bill 1758 and Senate Bill 5735, both of which could return the public's right to know to pre-Hangartner days.
But there's a clinker in the works. He's Sen. Jim Kastama (D-25th District), a Pierce County politico who has amended the Senate bill so that it keeps the same restrictions found in the Hangartner ruling.
Countering Kastama is King County Sen. Adam Kline (D-37th District). He's offered up his own amendment to SB 5735, and it would restore rights the Supreme Court took away.
The House bill restores former public rights to information, and both bills are currently stuck in committee. But the two bills still have to be reconciled, and there is a chance that Kastama's version will win the day.
If that happens, the Supreme Court ruling would be essentially codified, making it virtually impossible for anyone to file a high-court challenge to the Hangartner decision.
Would that really be so bad?
We think so, and we're not alone. Here's what the preamble in the Public Disclosure Act has to say: "The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know."
In the Hangartner case, Sound Transit and the Elevated Transit Co. (now the Seattle Monorail Project) made that call. The ETC, among other things, withheld information about internal discussions of its woefully inaccurate predictions about the agency's Motor Vehicle Excise Tax financing. That was before a close 2002 vote cleared the way for the project.
Government agencies and officials do make mistakes, and the Public Disclosure Act made it more difficult for them to get away with it. Hangartner makes it easier, and so could the proposed legislation.
Let your legislator know how you feel. We're talking about your right to know.
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