Lawmakers are trying to eliminate key part of public records law; we say that’s wrong

A proposal that would take a chip out of the state Public Records Act is on a legislative journey that needs to come to a halt.

Senate Bill 6079 would omit public employees’ birth dates from disclosure. Proponents say the exemption will help protect against identity theft, but we highly doubt it.

Thieves bent on getting personal information will find a way to get it.

What the legislation will do, however, is make it tougher for journalists and others to verify who people are.

And that is a serious problem.

Rowland Thompson, the executive director of The Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington, points out that journalists need names along with dates of birth to check for public employee pension fraud, as well as discrepancies like retire-rehire.

The name and birthday combination also helps track school teachers and coaches from one school district to another. That’s a big deal when it comes to monitoring those who have been accused of misconduct with students.

As an example, if this bill is approved it will be tougher to figure out if a school employee named Mr. Doe is the same Mr. Doe who police arrested for downloading child pornography to his home computer.

The bill made it out of a Senate committee and, as of this writing, still could make it to the Senate floor.

We don’t want to see it get that far.

Those supporting the bill say that in addition to protecting against identity theft, exempting the birth dates of public employees will make it harder for disgruntled citizens to make threats against them.

Thompson dismisses that claim, saying threats against public employees have happened for years and deleting their dates of birth from public records won’t “accelerate or retard” them.

According to Thompson, there is an underlying reason this legislation was crafted.

He said the Freedom Foundation is asking for names and birth dates of public employees so it can match them against voter lists and send them mailings to try to persuade them to drop their union memberships.

Lawmakers sympathetic to the unions are supportive of the legislation. Instead of protecting public employees from threats and identity theft, this measure is really a way to appease labor groups.

The Legislature is currently crossways with the media because most lawmakers last year refused to comply with a records request by the Associated Press and other news organizations.

Their attitude is that the same public records rules that apply to city councils, school boards and other governing bodies do not apply to them.

A lawsuit ensued, and a superior court judge has ruled in the media’s favor. The Legislature likely will appeal to the state Supreme Court, which we think is a waste of time and money.

The state Public Records Act was approved by voters in 1972 and should be respected. When it comes to this recent effort to exempt dates of birth for public employees, lawmakers shouldn’t push it.

Let it stay where it’s at on the bill trail and go no further.

This story was originally published February 6, 2018 at 4:12 PM with the headline "Lawmakers are trying to eliminate key part of public records law; we say that’s wrong."