I was supposed to testify remotely today on the new legislative public records bill but couldn’t make it to the site (snow is a four-letter word). My message for lawmakers is to follow the Lord of the Rings standard - one open government requirement to rule them all. Unfortunately, the new bill continues to set up a different public records disclosure requirement for the legislature than currently applies to local governments.

The biggest concern I have with the new bill is the permanent and expansive “deliberative process” exemption found in Section 111. According to the bill report (in-part):

“Legislature-Specific Exemptions. Certain records in the preparation, ownership, use, or possession of the legislative branch are permanently exempted from the PRA's disclosure obligations:

• bill and amendment drafts, regardless of whether the bill or amendment is actually offered;
   
• internal communications containing legal, policy, or fiscal options, analyses, models, or analytical tools;
   
• proposals, offers, counteroffers, or communications on bills;
   
• records of how members intend to vote on items before the Legislature; records of caucus votes, committee structure votes, and communications strategy materials”

While I don’t have a personal interest in whip counts or votes for committee membership, a permanent exemption of records related to a bill should be rejected outright. This would be a massive double standard compared to the temporary “deliberative process” exemption for local governments.

For example, had this permanent exemption existed at the local level, we never would have learned about the games Seattle officials played with its illegal income tax and ill-fated head tax. I can only imagine what type of games may be occurring now with current proposals in the legislature surrounding the capital gains income tax proposal. Under this bill we’d never know.

I would support a session exemption for deliberative process records, but once lawmakers Sine Die, those records should be disclosable. This is exactly what happens at the local level now.

This debate isn’t complicated. The legislature needs to follow the same open government requirements imposed on local officials.