Group begins review of records act exemptions

When approved in 1972, the state's public-disclosure law said all government records should be available to the public — with 10 exceptions, such as the personal records of public schools students.

Since then, the list of legal reasons to keep government information secret has grown to at least 300.

Trying to make sense of the public-records act now is "virtually impossible," said Thomas Carr, chairman of the new state Sunshine Committee.

The group is charged with reviewing the legal reasons the government can use to withhold information from the public. It met for the first time Tuesday in Olympia.

"We serve the people. The people don't serve us. And sometimes I think we forget that when we don't want to tell people how we come to decisions," state Rep. Lynn Kessler, a committee member, said at the meeting.

Tackling the list

How to tackle the list of exemptions was the subject of debate and could take years.

Some members volunteered to form a standard by which the exemptions could be judged.

Sen. Pam Roach said the committee should consider a major exemption soon.

"I want to … make this interesting to people. That requires that we at least bite at some of the big ones," she said.

A few people not on the committee cautioned members against simply tossing out secrecy rules.

"One of the things that has occurred in the last 20 years is a vast increase in the amount of information collected and held by the government on individuals," said Jennifer Shaw, a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Disclosure laws should separate public information on how government works from private information that the government gathers, she said. As an example, she said the documents to set taxes should be public, but not information about taxpayers.

The committee is scheduled to meet again Sept. 18.