Free Republic

A state Senate committee yesterday wrongly backed Chairman Jim Kastama's attempt to slam shut a critical door to the public's business. Kastama's disastrous amendment makes a bad bill worse, creating all kinds of new opportunity for government agencies to keep their actions from the public eye. The amendment essentially codifies last year's misguided state Supreme Court ruling that permits school boards, city councils and public commissions to invoke attorney-client privilege almost willy-nilly. If a House committee doesn't pass a more public-friendly bill by today's deadline, the only hope is to drastically amend the Senate bill on the floor — or...

OLYMPIA—In what is becoming a familiar pattern, the Boeing Company and state officials have released additional public records related to the Boeing 7E7 contract just days before the Court of Appeals will consider charges that public records laws were violated. Officials claim their timing has nothing to do with the pending court hearing, but that "passage of time" has made it so the information is no longer a trade secret. Boeing attorneys are, however, asking the Appeals Court not to consider the newly released information at the February 22 hearing, likely to avoid penalties for refusing to disclose the information...

Chairwoman Haigh, committee members, good morning. My name is Jason Mercier and I am a budget analyst for the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. I'd like to thank Rep. Nixon for the invitation to testify today on HB 1134, creating a public records advocate and records clearinghouse. My duties at EFF include requesting public records, and I am also frequently contacted by the public with questions on how to make public records requests. These experiences and the research I have conducted on public records laws from other states have led me to conclude that creating a public records advocate and public records...

Chris Vance, state Republican party chairman, said officials will decide whether to challenge the recount results after studying the voter rolls from King County, a Democratic stronghold that includes Seattle. "We're mostly posing questions," he said. "King County is where we saw the votes changing. King County is the one county that was allowed to take ballots that were declared dead in November and bring them back to life in December." Democrats accused the Republicans of being on "a fishing expedition" and urged them to concede or risk damaging Rossi's political future by dragging out an election already eight weeks...

OLYMPIA, WA – Today the Washington State Supreme Court again followed the recommendations of Attorney General Christine Gregoire in weakening the people's once strong public records law. In a 6-3 ruling in the Yousoufian versus Ron Sims public records case, the court held that despite the clear intent of Washington's public records law, agencies need only be fined per day for violating the law and not fined per record, per day for each record illegally withheld. Earlier this year, the court ruled 5-4 that agencies can deny records requests that are "over broad" and/or on the grounds of attorney-client privilege....

In a troubling blow to open government, the elected state auditor is being denied access to records necessary to hold Washington state government accountable to the people. While the difficulty with which some agencies have in providing access to public records is well documented (please see EFF PH 14-14), perhaps even more disturbing to the cause of open and accountable government is the opposition the state auditor's office (SAO) is encountering in its efforts to audit and review the conduct of state government. This fact is illustrated by the following comments from SAO's 2003 Statewide Accountability Report under the caption...

The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may maintain control over the instruments that they have created. The public records subdivision of this chapter shall be liberally construed and its exemptions narrowly construed to promote this public policy." - RCW 42.17.251 Despite the straightforward purpose of Washington's public records law,...

<p>Three weeks before last October's recall election, standing in front of a vintage locomotive inside the California Railroad Museum, Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to make California's government as transparent as any in the nation.</p> <p>"The people of this state do not trust their government," Schwarzenegger said. "They feel it is corrupted by dirty money, closed doors and backroom dealings."</p>

LANDMARK LEGAL FOUNDATION January 15, 2004 Mr. Barry Krischer State Attorney Palm Beach County 401 North Dixie Highway West Palm Beach, Florida 33401 Mr. Steve Yeaw Custodian of Records Palm Beach County 401 North Dixie Highway West Palm Beach, Florida 33401 BY FIRST CLASS MAIL AND FACSIMILE Re: Request for Expedited Production of Public Records Dear Messrs. Krischer and Yeaw: This is a request for public records pursuant to the Florida Public Records Act, Ch. 119, Florida Statutes. This request seeks all public records in the custody of the State Attorney's Office ("SAO") for the County of Palm Beach, or...

<p>California voters will decide the fate of a measure that would give residents a constitutional right to information used by state and local government to conduct public business. SCA 1 cleared its final legislative hurdle Monday by passing the Assembly 78-0. The proposal will appear on the November ballot.</p>

<p>Howard Dean´s fellow Democrats are now in a feeding frenzy over the former governor´s efforts to shield details of past energy policy meetings. Mr. Dean, in turn, calls the criticism "laughable." It seems his only response to the understandable calls for openness regarding public records is to attack.</p>

TALLAHASSEE Court: Public can't see FCAT From Herald Staff and Wire Services Copies of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test are not public records and parents have no right to see them, a state appellate court ruled Thursday. The First District Court of Appeal threw out a lower court ruling that would have allowed a Clearwater man to see copies of the FCAT his son failed. Last October, a Tallahassee trial judge ruled that parents should be able to see the FCAT booklets and the answer sheets to see if there was anything they can challenge. The state says that if...