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THE DAILY ASTORIAN THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2016
Washington lawmakers exempt from releasing emails
By WALKER ORENSTEIN
Associated Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Top lawmak-
ers in Washington largely exempt them-
selves from the state’s public records law,
and their of¿ces did not release emails sent
and received by their government accounts
when requested.
As part of a nationwide project by The
Associated Press, a week of emails and
daily schedules of Gov. Jay Inslee and
four leading lawmakers in Olympia were
requested to examine to what extent they’re
free from releasing their communications.
Emails and schedules from the week
of Feb. 1-Feb. 7 were not provided by
the of¿ces of 6peaker of the +ouse Frank
&hopp, '-6eattle, +ouse Minority Leader
'an .ristiansen, 5-6nohomish, 6enate
Majority Leader Mark 6choesler, 5-5it]-
ville, and 6enate Minority Leader 6haron
Nelson, D-Maury Island.
In denying the request, their of¿ces
cited a de¿nition of ³legislative records´
in the Public Records Act which exempts
³reports or correspondence made or
received´ by individual members of the
Legislature. The de¿nition, put into place
when the act became law in the early
1970s, does not include daily schedules as
a legislative record.
6till, lawmakers in the past have
released emails when asked, according to
Rowland Thompson, executive director
of the Allied Daily Newspapers of Wash-
ington. Thompson has been following the
issue for more than 20 years, he said.
³This is a bit of a sea change for them to
all say ‘no we’re not going to comply with
your request,´’ he said, but added a more
narrow or speci¿c records request might
have been answered by some lawmakers.
6choesler, when asked if his emails
should remain private, said ³it’s com-
plicated.´ +e defended keeping emails
exempt from records laws, and said it
allows whistleblowers to contact lawmak-
ers without fear of being exposed and retal-
iated against.
³We handle domestic violence, we have
whistleblowers,´ 6choesler said. ³That’s
one item that clearly comes to mind
immediately.´
The identity of people who are report-
ing ³improper governmental action´ is
exempt from public inspection under the
state Public Records Act. There are also
exemptions in place for domestic violence
programs.
&hopp said his of¿ce has worked with
reporters to release records if a request is
speci¿c enough, and said he prefers a more
open government where possible. +e said
he plans to take the temperature of +ouse
Democrats soon to see if there is support
for broadening the de¿nition of legislative
records. But he added he didn’t think there
was wide backing in the Legislature for
such a change.
³I’m going to take a look at it as soon as
session is over to actually ask people and
delve into it more,´ he said.
Inslee’s of¿ce released 9 emails and
his daily schedules. Inslee has said he will
not exercise an ‘executive privilege’ to
shield some documents from the public, as
the state’s high court permitted in 201.
HOW OTHER NORTHWEST STATES FARED
The Associated Press
Lawmakers in every state have
adopted laws requiring most gov-
ernment meetings and records to
be open to the public. But in some
states, lawmakers have exempted
themselves from complying.
The Associated Press sent
open-records request to the top
lawmakers in all 50 states and most
governors, seeking copies of their
daily schedules and emails from the
government accounts for the week
of Feb. 1-7. The AP received more
denials than approvals from law-
makers. It did not generally request
emails from private accounts be-
cause rules and practices on those
vary widely from state to state.
Summaries showing how they
responded in each state:
ALASKA
Under a policy set by the Legisla-
tive Council, records of a legislator
while in that lawmaker’s possession
are not public records based on the
deliberative process privilege and a
state constitutional provision dealing
with legislative immunity. But all
lawmakers can decide whether to
release information from their re-
cords. Republican Senate President
Kevin Meyer provided a copy of his
calendar and allowed a reporter to
look over an aide’s shoulder to see
how his email inbox is sorted. The
other three top legislative leaders
ultimately denied the request, re-
sponding with either a legal opinion
on what the law requires or a copy
of the legislative records’ policy. Gov.
Bill Walker’s office released a copy
of his calendar. It was still working
on a request for his emails.
CALIFORNIA
Ted S. Warren/AP Photo
Fog shrouds the Legislative Building at left, March 10, near midnight at the
Capitol in Olympia, Wash.
The Assembly and Senate Rules
committees declined requests for
emails and calendars for the top
legislative leaders, citing a number
of exemptions including privacy
and legislative privilege. California’s
legislative branch is bound by a less
transparent public records law than
the executive. It exempts from public
disclosure all “correspondence of
and to individual members of the
Legislature and their staff” as well
as any communications between
private citizens and the Legislature.
The committees also cited a 1991
California Supreme Court decision
allowing government agencies to
maintain the secrecy of public offi-
cials’ appointment calendars. Gov.
Jerry Brown’s office said it releases
the governor’s calendar monthly and
declined to provide earlier access
to a week of appointments. Brown’s
office said he did not use his official
email account during the first week
of February, the week requested by
the AP.
IDAHO
Idaho’s top four legislative leaders
agreed to release their emails and
personal calendars after requesting
an extension for more time to review
them for possible exemptions.
Together, the speaker of the House,
Senate president pro tem and
minority leaders in both chambers
had more than 3,700 emails. Law-
makers’ emails are public records
under Idaho’s open records laws, a
statute the Legislature adopted in
1990. However, fulfilling that request
would not have been free because
state law allows officials to charge
after providing one free hour’s of
work. Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s typ-
ically provides emails and personal
calendars with little to no redaction.
MONTANA
The state’s top lawmakers gen-
erally cooperated with requests for
emails and schedules, but in some
cases were reluctant to do so. The
Senate president, Debby Barrett,
responded only when pressed.
When she did respond, she simply
stated that she conducted no official
business via email during the week
in question. A legislative subcommit-
tee last month took up the issue of
public requests for email and direct-
ed staff to clarify existing guidelines,
including the use of personal email
addresses in the conduct of public
business. Some legislators, even
when using government-issued
accounts, balked at providing all
correspondence that flowed through
their government-issued accounts,
citing privacy. Staff members for
Gov. Steve Bullock said they would
work on fulfilling the request, but
about a month later had yet to pro-
duce the documents.
OREGON
Oregon’s governor and top lawmak-
ers have agreed to comply with the
requests for calendars and emails,
which are public record under state
law. Half of the eight top lawmak-
ers who received records requests
released their calendars, including the
Senate president and House speaker.
Some information was redacted,
including phone numbers, addresses
and details about specific events.
Release of the calendars from the
other four lawmakers and the gover-
nor are pending, as are the requests
for emails. Legislative staff said the
number of emails is 1,000 or more for
the governor and some lawmakers.
It’s common for responses to records
requests to take months in Oregon,
particularly with the governor and
lawmakers while they are in session.
Although Oregon’s public records
laws are applied broadly, there are
some exceptions for the Legislature.
For example, lawmakers and legisla-
tive staff can ignore records requests
filed between the 15 days leading up
to the start of the legislative session
and when it adjourns. When the
session is over, however, the same
records requests can be re-submitted
and the Legislature would have to
comply. Only one lawmaker initially
chose to ignore the AP’s request, but
later decided to comply.
WYOMING
State law exempts the Wyoming
Legislature from the open-records
law. Under Wyoming law, lawmak-
ers do not have to disclose any
communication with constituents or
correspondence with legislative staff.
The request for emails and calendars
to both the Republican and Dem-
ocratic leaders in the state Senate
and House resulted in the same
basic reply, noting the exemption.
Republican Gov. Matt Mead, who
is not exempt from any provisions,
released his calendar, minus certain
sensitive security details, and emails.
However, the state Supreme Court
has ruled recently that public officials
can refuse public inspection of docu-
ments they relied on in reaching final
policy decisions. The ruling came in
a case against the governor’s office.
Information compiled by AP report-
ers in all 50 states.
U.S. Senate bill would make it easier to access government records
By MARY CLARE
JALONICK
Associated Press
WA6+INGTON — The
6enate on Tuesday backed leg-
islation to make it easier for
Americans to obtain govern-
ment records.
The bipartisan bill, passed
by voice vote, would require
federal agencies to consider
the release of government
information under ³a presump-
tion of openness´ as opposed
to a presumption that the infor-
mation is secret.
The legislation aims to
reduce the amount of exemp-
tions the government uses
to withhold information and
would create a single portal
through which individuals can
submit a Freedom of Infor-
mation Act, or FOIA, request.
Currently, FOIA requests
are handled by each separate
agency, each with its own rules
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6
about how to submit a request.
The legislation was spon-
sored by Republican 6en. John
Cornyn of Texas and Demo-
cratic 6en. Patrick Leahy of
Vermont. The bill was timed
to pass during what is known
as 6unshine Week, an annual
celebration of access to public
information.
³Today’s vote sends a
clear message that the Ameri-
can people have a fundamen-
tal right to know what their
government is doing,´ Cornyn
said.
Leahy said the idea is to
establish a transparency stan-
dard that future administra-
tions will have to follow.
³We cannot leave it to the
next president to decide how
open the government should
be,´ Leahy said. ³We have to
hold all presidents and their
administrations accountable to
the highest standard.´
Republicans in Congress
have complained that the
Obama administration hasn’t
been fully transparent in shar-
ing records with lawmakers
and the public, while the White
+ouse has critici]ed Congress
for exempting itself from the
requirements. FOIA does not
apply to Congress.
The +ouse passed a simi-
lar bill in January. Because the
two bills are not identical, the
+ouse will have to act again
to send the legislation to Presi-
LISTINGS
A - Charter Astoria/ Seaside - L - Charter Long Beach
dent Barack Obama. Maryland
Rep. Rep. Elijah Cummings,
the top Democrat on the +ouse
Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform, urged
6peaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to
promptly pass the 6enate bill,
saying FOIA reform is long
overdue.
³There would be no bet-
ter way to celebrate 6un-
shine Week than to send FOIA
reform legislation to the presi-
dent’s desk,´ Cummings said.
Evening listings
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