Times joins in calling for not allowing governments to hide decision making from public and news reporters by delegating to private boards. One of the laws I look forward to passing in 2015. I will also be proposing an Open Government amendment to our state constitution, including reversing courts allowing WA Governors to claim executive privilege to hide records of outside lobbying contacts using the same claim as Richard Nixon. (PS, Jay Inslee, to his credit, has said he will not claim executive privilege despite the Courts ruling for former Gov). My dad, who passed away in December, was a great champion of open government and public records disclosure. He passed on his passion to fight for openness as necessary to preserve democracy and allow us to have trust in those we elect and the people who run agencies, commissions.... When I was 13, I joined him in reviewing public records of park and other commissions, where local political party officials gave away no-show public jobs and contracts to other political party officers. We were locked in an office with the records which the law said we had a right to inspect, and barred from having pens (told we might harm the records), barred from access to the copying machine, had a staff member watch everything we did.... It took years, but some of the abuses were exposed, some of the officials went to jail.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 17:25:17 +0000
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