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THE WASHINGTON NEWSPAPER January 2019
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Journal of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association
Legislature to convene without PRA consensus Task force adopts general principles, but fails to resolve legislative privilege issue
As the Washington State Legislature convenes Jan. 14, it will be beginning business without a consensus with stakeholders on whether the Legislature should be subject to the state Public Records Act. A legislative task force created to find common ground on the issue adopted some general provisions, but legislators say they still believe the Legislature deserves special treatment to protect its deliberative process. Open
government advocates disagree. “We hoped that we would be able to roll up our sleeves and work together Nixon side-by-side with legislators to identify how to bring the legislature fully under the Public Records Act and craft specific
exemptions to protect the public interest,” said Toby Nixon, President of the Washington Coalition for Open Government. “We are disappointed that the outcome of the process is limited to just a few vague, broad, high-level statements of principles that should have been obvious to all from the start.” Republican lawmakers Matt Shea and Mike Volz, in a joint statement, claimed the state Constitution confers a privilege
that allows legislators to withhold documents related to the deliberative process. “In many cases, it makes sense to protect sensitive information shared by constituents, such as crime victims and whistleblowers who seek assistance from their legislator. And to the extent that the legislative privilege derives from the state constitution and cannot be waived by statute, additional study and thought needs to occur on this topic.”
A coalition of media partners led by the Associated Press last year sued the Legislature challenging its presumption that it was exempt from the Public Records Act. A superior court judge sided with the media organizations and that prompted the Legislature to quickly adopt legislation without hearings exempting themselves from the act. Newspapers across the state published editorials condemning the action and the gov-
David Pan of the Mukilteo Beacon took a first place in color sports feature photography category in the 2018 WNPA Better Newspaper Contest.
By Maryanne Reed Reading public notice ads in the classifieds is about exciting as watching paint dry, but it’s necessary reading for some. In Carmel, California, a 99-year-old woman was able to stop the bank from foreclosing on her house after someone read the notice in the local paper and shared it with her grandchildren. After reading a county financial report in the Ottumwa Courier, an Iowa pharmacist learned that a national pharmacy chain overcharged by five times the price of medicines it supplied the local jail. His complaints led to him securing the contract instead. Dating back to the Colonial era, public notice has served a vital role in informing people about the activities of their gov-
ernment. Typical public notice laws apply to public actions, such as budgets, hearings, government contracts open for bidding, unclaimed property and court actions. But despite its historical significance and importance, public notice has increasingly come under attack. In recent years, some cash-strapped state legislatures have tried to remove the requirement that public notices be published in newspapers, opting instead to allow government entities to post them for free on their own websites. “It would be the classic example of putting the fox in charge of the hen house,” says Richard Karpel, executive director of the Public Notice Resource Cen-
Olympia News Bureau staffed, ready to roll Bureau Chief Sandy Stokes has WNPA’s Olympia News Bureau up and running with four reporters contributing to the WNPA report. The reporters are Emma Scher, Madeline Coats and Sean Harding, who will be covering statewide issues. Emma Epperly will be covering the Moses Lake area for the first few months, and will finish out the session covering statewide issues. Editors should begin receiving stories from the ONB as the Legislature gets underway. If for some reason you aren’t on the distribution list, contact Stokes at sstokes. onb@gmail.com. Coverage of the Legislature is a key WNPA member benefit.
See PRA, Page 3
Public Notices prove their value, alerting public, saving money
See NOTICES, Page 2