(Horrible) SB 6351 Appears to be Dead

SB 6351, which would have allowed a court to prevent any person from making public records requests if the request were a "significant burden" to the agency, looks like it is dead.

Judge Orders Disclosure Despite Contract

A King County Superior Court judge ordered the disclosure of records despite a union contract saying they could not be released.

The City of Seattle, to its credit, argued that it must disclose the records; the police union argued against disclosure.

Co-Mediation!

Hell has officially frozen over. Greg Overstreet and Ramsey Ramerman have teamed up.

The Associated Press is running a story this weekend on "co-mediation" in public records cases. The idea is that instead of looking to one mediator to attempt to resolve these contentious--and very expensive--cases out of court, each "side" has a co-mediator. Greg Overstreet is the requestor's co-mediator and noted agency PRA attorney Ramsey Ramerman is the agency's co-meditor.

Here is the Overstreet/Ramerman co-mediation web site: www.og-med.com. (Both Overstreet and Ramerman will continue their law practices, but will also provide co-mediation services.)

The AP story is running in various newspapers. They are the Olympian, Bellingham Herald, The (Tacoma) News Tribune, Seattle Times, and (Vancouver) Columbian. FindLaw is also running it.

KING 5 TV correctly notes that their story on the ballooning costs of Public Records Act litigation is one of the reasons why co-mediation is getting some attention.

Co-mediation just might be the thing that breaks the log jam in some of these cases. Co-mediation might reduce the number of "horror stories" each side has.

Spokesman-Review Editorial on SB 6109

The Spokesman-Review writes this excellent editorial on why SB 6109, which exempts recordings of executive sessions from disclosure, should be passed by the House.

Olympian Editorial on SB 6109 (Executive Session Tapes)

This editorial from The Olympian describes why it's good that the Senate passed SB 6109, which makes tapes of executive sessions exempt from disclosure. A good exemption from disclosure? Yes, because now agencies can tape their executive sessions without worrying about them being automatically disclosed--but, if there is a lawsuit or some other reason to have a record of what happened in the executive session, then the tape exists.

Too Much Disclosure?

Can too much disclosure be a bad thing? Read this story and see what you think.

KING 5 Story on Big Public Records Act Awards Against the State

This is pretty amazing.

Various Legislative Things

This time of year there are numerous legislative things happening on the public records front. Here are some of them:

Public given one minute to testify on Public Records Act bill.

Newspapers editorialize against Public Records Act bills.

Editorial from The (Vancouver) Columbian on Public Records Act bills.

School districts want to charge for "search time" to gather public records.

Seattle Times Editorial on SB 6574 (Search Fees for School Districts)

Another terrible bill, SB 6574, is the subject of this Seattle Times editorial.

More on (Horrible) SB 6351

Here is an editorial from The (Everett) Herald on (awful) SB 6351.

Toby Nixon Explains Why Open Gov't Is Important

KING 5 TV has this nice piece from Toby Nixon.

Yakima Herald-Republic Editorial on SB 6351

This editorial describes why SB 6351, the bill to allow agencies to not respond to records requests they deem to be "harassing," is so bad.

Sunshine Committee Wants Agency Job Applicants' Records Disclosed

This story from The (Tacoma) News Tribune describes the Sunshine Committee's recommendation that agency job applicants' applications be disclosed.

Kudos to the Sunshine Committee.

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."

Here is the Bellingham Herald story on the bill.