Those hoping to reopen WA restaurants were mistreated at failed public hearing | Editorial

If state lawmakers are going to have a public hearing, then they need to give people a chance to be heard.

After all, that’s the whole point of gathering public testimony.

So it is extremely distressing that when over 400 people signed up to testify Wednesday on a proposal to reopen restaurants and other businesses during the COVID pandemic, only a fraction of them were allowed to speak.

And many of those who did talk ended up abruptly muted mid-sentence and cut off as soon as they hit the one-minute mark.

That wasn’t right.

Over 1,600 people signed up to participate in the remote Senate hearing, which set a record. While not all of them intended to speak, that tremendous amount of public interest should not have been so easily dismissed.

Business owners are hurting since the state was shut down in order to stem the spread of COVID-19, and this was the first time they had the chance to tell their stories to the legislature.

State lawmakers should have set aside plenty of time for an issue of this magnitude. But instead, they did just the opposite.

The issue of reopening Washington state’s economy — Senate Bill 5114 — was crammed into an already packed schedule for the Senate State Government and Elections Committee.

It was the last bill on the agenda, and only an hour was set aside for public comment despite the hundreds of people signed up to speak.

To add to the apparent unfairness, people who spoke on other bills before the committee that day were given two to three minutes to talk. But those business owners who have been sacrificing since the state shutdown began were only allowed one minute to plead their case.

We understand that sometimes speaking times must be reduced, but under these circumstances members of the Senate committee gave the appearance that other issues on their agenda were more important to them.

There needs to be some consistent ground rules now that all testimony before legislative committees is being conducted online. For transparency’s sake, state officials must figure out a way to accommodate large numbers of participants to give them the same opportunities as those who are testifying on bills that attract few speakers.

Remote testimony is a wonderful tool that allows Washington state residents to participate in state government without having to travel to Olympia. Sen. Sharon Brown, R-Kennewick, has been pushing for remote access to the legislature for years. Now, because of the pandemic and social distancing requirements, it’s a tool that is needed now more than ever.

But if lawmakers don’t use it correctly, it won’t work.

The online system is supposed to improve access to state officials, but unfortunately some lawmakers are taking advantage of the mute button. It’s easier to cut people off online than if they are physically present in the same room.

It also doesn’t give people confidence in the system when the Seattle Times reports that state Sen. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia, chair of the committee that took testimony for SB 5114, said, “Frankly, I line up the groups that like to follow the scientists more than just a wave of emotion.”

That’s harsh, Senator.

Small business owners have made huge sacrifices during the COVID pandemic and many have either lost their livelihoods or on the brink of losing them.

Dismissing the pain of business owners as a “wave of emotion” when they are struggling to survive shows an alarming lack of compassion.

Senate Bill 5114 has 16 co-sponsors, including Brown; Sen. Perry Dozier, R-Waitsburg; and Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville.

It also has bipartisan support, including from Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, who introduced SB 5114 with Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia.

And frankly, whether legislators agree with the SB 5114 is beside the point. When people want to testify on a major issue facing our state, they should be given the chance.

Remote testimony was supposed to make that easier. Lawmakers should figure out a protocol to ensure it is being used fairly, and that people don’t get shut out of the process once they’ve been invited in.

This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 11:48 AM.