Senate Hears Testimony on SB 6351, a Truly Horrible PRA Idea Ever

The Seattle Times reports on yesterday's hearing on SB 6351, a bill that would allow an agency to not respond to records requests from people the agency deems "harassing."

Arlington Fights Felon Records Requestor

This (Everett) Herald story describes why the City of Arlington will spend thousands of dollars to avoid paying a convicted felon a $500 settlement in a Public Records Act case.

AZ Gov. Letter to President--Not a Public Record?

Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, wrote a handwritten letter to President Obama on her gubernatorial letterhead. Apparently the letter is "feisty" (we don't care about the politics of the letter).

The USA Today story says:

"When The Arizona Republic requested a copy, Brewer's spokesman, Matthew Benson, said no copies existed and the letter was 'personal, handwritten' correspondence not subject to open-records laws."

To the credit of Gov. Brewer's staff, they released a copy when they found out a copy had been made.

Oh, come on. A governor in a political dispute with the President doesn't make a copy of a letter she gives the President? Really? No one made a copy? It seems that Gov. Brewer's staff "found" the copy only when people found it about the letter.

We run into this often where an agency claims it doesn't possess a record that common sense would indicate it would possess.

Hat tip to KMac for this story.

When The Arizona Republic requested a copy, Brewer's spokesman, Matthew Benson, said no copies existed and the letter was "personal, handwritten" correspondence not subject to open-records laws.

FBI Hiding FOIA Documents

This explains a lot. It describes the FBI's apparent practice of "blacklisting" requested records and not providing them.

Hat tip to Jim for sending this to us.

SB 6351: Terrible, Terrible Bill

Just as we predicted, government agencies would attempt to amend RCW 42.56.565, the statute allowing a court order to prevent an agency from responding to an inmate's public records request, and then apply it to ... any public records request.

They did it. They have introduced SB 6351.

That's right: requestors like you are just like inmates under this bill.

Attorney General Rob McKenna will hopefully oppose SB 6351.

Olympian Editorial on Need to Record Executive Sessions

This editorial from The Olympian describes why the Legislature should pass SB 6109.