Court ruling blocks transparency
A state agency's reliance on a legal technicality led to the state Supreme Court’s decision
Washington State Supreme Court, Olympia, Wash.
The Washington State Supreme Court ruled today that state collective bargaining agreements are exempt from the state's Public Records Act, to the disappointment of transparency advocates.
The case was Citizen Action Defense Fund v. Washington State Office of Financial Management in the Office of the Governor. The watchdog organization Citizen Action Defense Fund filed suit in December 2022, accusing the state Office of Financial Management of unlawfully withholding documents from collective bargaining agreements.
“The Office of Financial Management could have released these records in a timely fashion but chose to withhold them using a technicality in the law,” said Mike Fancher, board president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government. “This was a disservice to the people of Washington, and it is all too common in state government.”
The Court ruled 8-1 that the documents were exempt from disclosure under the PRA because of an exemption for deliberative process documents, even after the agreements were signed. The majority opinion said the agreements were still not final until the legislature had approved them and the governor had signed them.
“There was no reason for the state to be secretive about its negotiation of contract terms that had major financial and operational impacts on the government,” Fancher said. “We hope the new administration will be more transparent about the collective bargaining process in the future so that the public can understand how and why decisions are made.”
WashCOG filed an amicus brief supporting Citizen Action Defense Fund in this case.
The sole dissent was by Justice Sal Munquia, the newest member of the court, who wrote, “The people have the right to know what their government is doing. That value is the basis for the Public Records Act (PRA). The presumption is that the public is entitled to information their government holds.”
The complete ruling of Citizen Action Defense Fund v. Washington State Office of Financial Management in the Office of the Governor can be found here.
