Wash. Coalition for Open Gov't Award Goes to Sen. Honeyford

The Washington Coalition for Open Government announced Sen. Jim Honeyford received a Key Award this year. Congratulations.

Court Rules on Electronic Records Issue

The Mitchell decision came out today. Here is the court's synopsis of the case:

Kevin Mitchell made a Public Records Act (PRA) request to the
Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) and asked for the requested records to be
disclosed electronically. The DOC responded that it would not disclose the records electronically
because redactions would be necessary to protect information that was exempt from disclosure.
Mitchell filed suit claiming that the agency (1) improperly denied access to records without
providing an exemption statement, and (2) was required to disclose the records electronically.
The trial court ruled in favor of the DOC on both claims. We reverse and remand to the trial
court on Mitchell’s first claim, holding that the DOC violated the PRA by failing to provide an
exemption statement with its response denying access to the records in part. We affirm on
Mitchell’s second claim, holding that the DOC was not required to disclose the records
electronically. We award attorney fees on appeal to Mitchell for that portion attributable to theclaim on which he prevailed.

Olympian Editorial on Sunshine Committee

This editorial from The Olympian describes the probable demise of the Sunshine Committee. Gov. Gregoire, on behalf of local government, appointed anti-openness members and doomed the Sunshine Committee from the beginning.

NOTE: The editorial quotes Greg Overstreet of Allied Law Group.

Executive Privilege Case

The Freedom Foundation has sued Gov. Gregoire to obtain records withheld by the Governor's Office on "executive privilege" grounds. This case will set the parameters of "executive privilege."

The (Everett) Herald writes an editorial describing why the records need to be turned over.

This piece from Karen Peterson, Executive Editor of The (Tacoma) News Tribune, similarly describes the danger of a governor having the ability to make records secret.

West v. Dep't of Nat. Resources--New Public Records Act Case

Here is the case.

Here is the summary provided by the court of the holding:

"Arthur West appeals from a trial court order that the Washington
State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) did not violate the Public Records Act (PRA). ch.
42.56 RCW. West seeks penalties for untimely disclosure and destruction of documents, an
injunction to prevent further destruction of records, and an order authorizing forensic recovery.
West argues that the DNR violated the PRA by (1) not responding to his request in five business
days, (2) destroying and/or delaying production of the public record emails of its chief financial
officer, (3) failing to search diligently for the emails, and (4) improperly exempting documents
from production as either attorney work product or attorney-client privileged. West also argues
that all of the trial court’s findings lack substantial evidence. Holding that the DNR violated the
PRA by not responding to West’s request within five business days, we reverse and remand in part."

Sunshine Committee Might Be Eliminated

The Olympian reports that the Sunshine Committee's lack of action--because, in og-blog's opinion, the government representatives on the panel have stymied action--might mean that the committee is defunded.