WashCOG honors transparency efforts with Key Awards
The Washington Coalition for Open Government presented Key Awards to two individuals in May: Manuel Villa and Brittany Voie.
Villa is a data journalist for The Seattle Times. His Key Award was connected to his investigative report on how a state-run pension fund allows overtime to be included in the calculations for pension benefits.. Using public records and his own calculations, Villa determined that the state will spend an extra $158 million in pension funds by 2044 based on overtime worked by Seattle police and firefighters. Villa focused only on the Seattle police and fire departments, from which he gathered salary and overtime data that the state does not track.
His story was published in April 2025, and WashCOG presented the award in May.
Villa said during his Key Award presentation on May 21 that he spent over a year collecting data from several agencies, partly because the state lacked the comprehensive data needed to determine how much overtime was affecting the pension payments.
Brittany Voie and George Erb
Voie was nominated for using the Public Records Act to find and publish records that partially explained the city of Centralia’s baffling selection of a mayor who resigned after a month in office. She is also compiling public data on candidates for sheriff on a website she created: nextlcsheriff.com. Her goal is to make available all information she can gather through government records to shine more light on these candidates prior to the Aug. 4 primary. Four candidates have filed for the open seat.
That’s just one of many projects Voie has taken on, largely through her personal Facebook page. Voie previously worked as a journalist for The (Centralia) Chronicle and now frequently writes for the Lewis County News.
During the May 28 presentation in front of Centralia City Hall, Voie said that being the person to dig and find information that people might not see otherwise is “meaningful work.”
“I appreciate the opportunity to do it and be recognized,” she said.
This was Voie’s second Key Award. Her first was given in 2017 when she was a reporter at The Chronicle. The WashCOG board votes to give Key Awards each year to recognize people who have done work advancing the cause of open government. Two others will be presented with awards in June and July.
They are:
Joe Kunzler of Sedro-Woolley for his work helping WashCOG track legislation in recent years via a tracker that he created;
Range Media and its news staff in Spokane for coverage of the use of Flock license-plate readers that collect large amounts of data that can be used to track people in ways most people would not have anticipated.
