Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Diogenes was a Greek philosopher known for wandering public places during the day while carrying a lantern. His goal was to find and shine a light on an “honest man” with an honest answer.
Like Diogenes, today’s print journalists and many residents are searching for honesty — honesty in their public officials and from public agencies. That honesty can only be verified through open and accessible public meetings and records.
This week, March 16-22, is Sunshine Week, a week dedicated to keeping government meetings open, records readily available and employees accountable. This week is dedicated to the public’s quest for an honest man and honest government agency.
But if you were to take the pulse of government transparency across the state and nation, you may be hard-pressed to find a healthy heartbeat.
Over the last year, Eastern Washington journalists have run into multiple roadblocks in accessing meetings, reviewing records and generally keeping public employees beholden to those who employ them — the taxpayers.
Reporters have had issues with public employees physically trying to block them from attending public meetings, talking directly to publicly elected officials and obtaining crash and criminal incident reports and documents. Reporters have encountered public school and hospital employees attempting to control the news rather than eagerly providing information owned by their public bosses. Moreover, reporters have pointed out many mayors and elected board members, and their employees, don’t even know basic public records and meeting laws.
Heck, even some coroners have tried to claim they have the choice in releasing the name of someone who died. (For the record, Revised Code of Washington 68.50.300 requires coroners to release a decedent’s name be released within 48 hours of death or immediately after notification of kin, whichever comes first.)
And these are just a few of the voluminous issues that have been raised by reporters and others over the public’s right to know here in Washington state. No wonder people don’t think government agencies and their employees have any credibility.
But it gets worse.
In some cases, government agencies have been caught telling other government agencies not to release their public records. And some government agencies have even tried to claim nondisclosure exemptions of other agencies.
And lawmakers in Olympia are constantly looking for ways to exempt themselves from open meetings and records laws.
But in the spirit of Sunshine Week, instead of dwelling on the deceitful actions of public employees, let’s look at shining a light on public agencies, their employees, records and meetings.
In Washington state, the law governing the release of public records is Revised Code of Washington 42.56, the Public Records Act. This statute outlines what records are public and what exemptions are allowed.
If a public employee cites a different statute as a basis for nondisclosure, they either don’t know the law or are intentionally taking it out of context. That begs the question, what are they hiding?
And what about meetings? The Open Public Meetings Act is RCW 42.30; it details the only instances when a public board can meet outside of the public eye. (Interestingly, our law is permissive, meaning elected boards are not required to go into executive session, but “may” do so in limited instances.)
A lot of the problems in accessing public records and meetings are found at agencies with a hired “communications” specialist.
Often, agency administrators hire these people to spin a story instead of answering questions. Often, they are an impediment to obtaining information. Today’s communications officer is more of an advertising agent than a public records steward.
You have the right to demand your publicly elected officials and agency leaders speak to you directly, not through a hired mouthpiece.
In fact, you have a lot of rights to public meetings, records and officials in our state.
For example, you have the right to review personnel files of public employees, review incident reports and probable cause statements, and attend juvenile court and other court hearings.
You have the right to know how much public employees are being paid and what benefits they are receiving. You have the right to know what’s in government contracts, how you tax dollars are being spent and more.
In short, in our state, almost all local government communications — including documents, emails, cellphone data, videos, images, social media and other forms of communicating — are public. All you should have to do is ask.
And with few exceptions, meetings with a quorum of an elected board are public. You can attend without having to “sign up.”
This Sunshine Week, indeed every week of the year, take the opportunity to attend meetings, demand access to records and hold those on the public payroll accountable.
Only in doing so will we continue to keep government open and transparent..
— Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Email him at Roger@cheneyfreepress.com.
Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers from Washington state to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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