Public Records Show ....

You'll just have to read this Tacoma News-Tribune story to see. Yet another example of why access to public records keeps government accountable.

Tri-City Herald Editorial on Releasing Hospital Mistake Records

The Tri-City Herald editorializes about the Washington State Hospital Association's recent about-face on providing hospital mistake records.

Seattle Times on Washington Getting an "F" on National Open-Gov't Study

Mike Fancher, Seattle Times editor-at-large, writes this column on the recent "F" Washington state received in a national open-government study. This column is a must-read.

To see the full report, go to last week's og-blog posting on this. It shows that corruption-challenged states like New Jersey and Louisiana beat Washington's pants off on open government. That should concern you. A lot.

P.S. How is it possible that Washington gets an "F" on open-government when Gov. Gregoire is running state government and she has, according to Governing Magazine, "brought state government a transparency it had never known before"? Either Washington has a fabulous open-government system or Governing Magazine got a little carried away.

Let's Not Get Carried Away

Governor Gregoire has been named one of nine top public officials by Governing magazine. Congratulations.

But, as David Postman's blog points out, part of the reason the magazine named her was that "Gregoire had brought state government a transparency it had never known before."

What? Who writes this stuff?

Governor Gregoire recently (two days ago) received kudos from og-blog for settling the DOC electronic records case. We give credit where credit is due. But, with all due respect Madam Governor, you have not "brought state government a transparency it had never known before." Not even close. Naming Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr as chair of the Sunshine Committee? Initially withholding the Sunshine Committee records? Huh?

State government transparency has improved some. But credit for transparency goes instead to the (bi-partisan) combination of Attorney General Rob McKenna (R), House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler (D), and State Auditor Brian Sonntag (D).

Congratulations on the award from Governing magazine. But let's not get carried away about the transparency thing.

Douglas Moore: Sunshine Troublemaker of the Week

The State Sunshine and Open Records blog, which covers open-government issues nationwide and is terrific, gives a weekly award to the "Sunshine Troublemaker of the Week." This is a pesky citizen who--dawg gone it--asks for public records and even insists that the agency follows the law. Don't you hate people like that?

This week's Sunshine Troublemaker of the Week is from Washington state. He is Douglas Moore who fought the state Department of Corrections to obtain electronic records in an electronic format. He lost in Thurston County Superior Court but DOC, after some prodding from the Governor, settled the case, agreeing to provide the records in an electronic format and paying Moore $65,000 in attorneys fees. We would add that Moore's attorneys, Bendich, Stobaugh and Strong, get some credit here; they probably worked on a contingency fee and were not assured of being paid for their hard work. Congratulations to all.

Past og-blog postings on the Moore case are here, here, and here.

Supreme Court Asked to Review Pipeline Decision

The Bellingham Herald reports that a coalition of newspapers are asking the state Supreme Supreme Court to review the (awful) Court of Appeals decision allowing pipeline companies to block the disclosure of pipeline records.