WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

House passes bill promoting open-government training

State Rep. Gerry Pollet led support when the House recently passed Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s request-legislation (House Bill 2121), 64-34, that would require open-government training for public officials to improve government transparency and reduce lawsuits.

“Our citizens have a right to a government that takes its responsibility toward public-openness very seriously,” said Pollet, D-Seattle (46th Legislative District). “Public officials and agency public-records officers must not violate the law and deny the public our right to see government operate in the sunshine.”

“The bill will improve government transparency for citizens and reduce lawsuits,” Ferguson said. “This is one of many open-government efforts underway at the Attorney General’s Office, including the recent full-time hire of open-government attorney, Nancy Krier.”

Pollet’s measure would ensure that local officials take a 30-minute, on-line training session so they know their obligations both toward ensuring that they conduct the public’s business in public and toward ensuring public-access to public records.

“Thirty minutes is not too much to ask of newly elected officials to know their fundamental responsibilities to conduct the public’s business in the open. Over the past two years, Attorney General Ferguson has taken a lead in creating a training program to make sure elected officials and public employees live by — and live up to — this essential public responsibility.”

Pollet’s House Bill 2121 is Ferguson’s request-legislation that would require training for state and local officials who are subject to the Public Records Act and the Open Public Meetings Act.

“This bill will also greatly reduce the expensive liability of state and local governments from repeated findings that they did not train their staffs or elected officials in how to respond to a public-records request,” Pollet said.

The Seattle lawmaker said in supporting the bill on the House floor that “freedom relies on openness and vigilance. Our democracy relies on openness and participation, which in turn relies on citizens being able to see our government operate in the sunshine.”

Also in his recent floor remarks, Pollet quoted James Madison, the father of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the nation’s fourth president. Pollet noted Madison’s statement that “a popular government without information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy — or perhaps both.” And further, from Madison: “People who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives.”

Pollet said that “the cornerstones of sunshine and participation in our state” are the two laws for open public meetings and access to public information. “These standards enable our government to function in the sunshine.”

A board member of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, Pollet has supervised a program training law students in open-government and environmental law. He is also a co-founder of the bipartisan Open Government Caucus.