Attorney general unveils proposed legislation

By Michelle Dupler, Herald staff writer

OLYMPIA -- Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna on Wednesday unveiled a package of legislation he'll give to lawmakers to try to tackle abuse of the state's public records and open meetings laws.

McKenna is joined by State Auditor Brian Sonntag in proposing a bill that would make training on the state's Open Public Meetings Act mandatory for elected officials and require recording of closed sessions once a court finds a government has violated the law intentionally by doing business behind closed doors.

The idea for mandatory training came in part from Benton County Commissioner Leo Bowman, who proposed the idea at a forum on open government laws at Washington State University Tri-Cities in April.

Bowman said while he hasn't directly participated in drafting legislation, he did pitch his idea to McKenna and to the Washington State Association of Counties.

"Mandatory training would provide consistent training so everyone got the same training," Bowman said by telephone Wednesday. "In theory, it would provide the same understanding of the rules."

Bowman's contention is that most public officials who violate the rules do so by mistake because they either don't know the rules or because interpretations vary widely among attorneys advising cities and counties.

A unified lesson plan that all elected officials in Washington could access would help cut down on such violations, he said.

"I feel content there's not a single elected official who became elected so they could break the law," Bowman said. "They're just trying to do the job."

State law allows governments to do some kinds of business behind closed doors, such as talking about strategy for defending or prosecuting lawsuits when public discussions might put the government at a disadvantage.

But the law doesn't allow governments to make decisions in secret. If that happens, the decision can be invalidated and the people involved fined.

McKenna's proposal would provide a "safe harbor" for actions taken in an illegal closed meeting if the government admits the violation at its next regular meeting, has taken no final action and doesn't anticipate being sued over the closed meeting.

It also would allow, but not require, recordings of closed meetings. Those recordings would not be made public unless the government agreed.

But if a government intentionally violates the law, McKenna is asking that they be made to record closed meetings for two years after a court decides the law was broken. Recordings would be kept for two years but would not be public records.

At the news conference at his Olympia office, McKenna said the intent is not to punish officials but to ensure they follow the law.

The bill represents a compromise from legislation McKenna proposed during the 2008 legislative session that would have required closed meetings to be taped but the tapes not made public without a court order.

McKenna said a second bill he's proposing would curtail abusive requests for public records by jail and prison inmates that are intended merely to harass government.

He said governments in Washington spend about $500,000 each year on such records requests from a small group of inmates who brag about how they use the system.

"It makes it harder for people with nonabusive requests to get records," he said.

The law would create criteria and tests for deciding when an inmate's request is legitimate, such as to gather records to mount a defense, and when the requests are intended to intimidate or harass.

Franklin County spent months battling requests from convicted arsonist Allan W. Parmelee, who is serving a 24-year sentence at the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, asking for staff photos, training records, performance evaluations, complaints and grievances and work phone numbers for all jail employees even though he had never been jailed in Franklin County.

Parmelee is known statewide for using that tactic against judges, lawyers and corrections officers.

A third measure would create an administrative process for resolving public records disputes rather than forcing litigation.

McKenna also plans to propose legislation to:

* Make it a felony to view child pornography, which he said would help catch pedophiles before they prey upon children.

* Stiffen penalties for repeated domestic violence convictions.

* Crack down on Internet businesses that offer free trials, but then charge consumers' credit cards.

* Allow real estate agents to represent homeowners who are behind on their mortgages and want to sell their homes to avoid foreclosure.

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Thursday, Jan. 08, 2009

Attorney general unveils proposed legislation

By Michelle Dupler, Herald staff writer