Speakers Bureau
Is finding speakers for meetings, conferences, and conventions getting to be a hassle? Are your members demanding information on topics like retention of public records and access to public records and meetings?
The Washington Coalition for Open Government (WashCOG) now offers you an easy and inexpensive way to avoid that headache. We have developed a roster of knowledgeable speakers who can provide enlightening and entertaining programs that will answer your members’ questions on perplexing issues concerning public records and open public meetings. Since 2002, WashCOG has presented programs across Washington that have reached thousands of citizens and public officials. With the inception of this Speakers Bureau, we intend to reach community leaders, the men and women who belong to your organization.
To request a speaker for an event, just click on the Request a Speaker button below and fill out the form. WashCOG will match presenters to requesters based on criteria such as location, expertise required, and timing.
Our standard honorarium is $250.00; however, we will negotiate a lower amount if that is prohibitive for your organization. Payment may be made by cash, check, or credit card via PayPal. Please contact WashCOG Executive Director Juli Bunting at info@washingtoncog.org for details.
Educators and parents looking for engaging online learning sessions during the current school closures should contact the Washington coalition for Open Government, now offering “Virtual Guest Speakers.”
Members of the WashCOG Speakers Bureau
Juli Bunting, WashCOG Executive Director
Bunting is a published author, former journalist, broadcaster, legislative aide, and event manager. Over the past three years, she finished two published novellas and will have two short stories in an upcoming anthology. Prior to moving to Columbia, Missouri, she was the president and owner of an event management company which was responsible for increasing event revenue for prominent nonprofit organizations in Seattle. Before moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1993, she was the top radio information officer for the Texas Department of Agriculture after leaving the post of legislative aide and press secretary for the longest serving Texas state senator from Austin.
Bunting had a successful career as a radio news reporter, anchor, and talk show host prior to appointment to the senator’s office.
Ed Clark, Clark, Raymond & Company
Areas of Expertise
Public Records Access
Biographical Information
D. Edson Clark, CPA, graduated summa cum laude from the University of Washington in 1977. He obtained his license to practice in the State of Washington as a certified public accountant in 1980. After several years as a tax partner in a multiple partner local accounting firm, Ed co-founded Clark, Raymond & Company in 1991, where he continues to serve as the executive professional.
During his years in public accounting, Ed has been the engagement principal on numerous client engagements that involve the preparation of audited, reviewed, or compiled financial statements, and has extensive experience providing commercial and personal income tax advice. Ed also has extensive experience in the estate taxation and estate planning arena.
Ed is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Washington State Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Ed was a founding Director and former Board Chair of the Rotary Wishing Well Foundation and a former Board member of the Make A Wish Foundation of Washington.
Ed received a Key Award from the Washington Coalition For Open Government in recognition of his success in unlocking government secrets related to the improper regulation of the accounting profession in the State of Washington and currently is a Board member of the Coalition.
William John Crittenden, Attorney at Law
Areas of Expertise
Public Records
Appeals
Land Use Regulation
Biographical Information
William Crittenden is an attorney in private practice. Mr. Crittenden represents parties in litigation and appeals involving freedom of speech and access to public records. He is also Of Counsel to Groff Murphy, PLLC where he represents developers, builders, owners and other interested parties in litigation and in administrative and legislative land use matters. Mr. Crittenden has represented WashCOG and the League of Women Voters as amicus curiae in cases involving public records and voting rights. Before entering private practice Mr. Crittenden served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Barbara Durham of the Washington Supreme Court and Judge William W. Baker of the Court of Appeals. Mr. Crittenden is a 1992 graduate of the University of Washington School of Law.
Mike Fancher, WashCOG president
Areas of Expertise
Journalism
Journalism Ethics
Investigative Reporting
Open Government in democracy
Biographical Information
Mike Fancher retired from The Seattle Times in 2008 after 20 years as executive editor. He started as a general assignment reporter in Seattle and was promoted to managing editor after three years. During his tenure as executive editor The Times won four Pulitzer Prizes and was a Pulitzer finalist 13 other times.
He began his career as an intern for The Kansas City Star, after getting a B.A. degree in journalism from the University of Oregon and a Masters degree in Communication from Kansas State University. He received his MBA degree from the University of Washington in 1986, the year he became Seattle Times executive editor.
Fancher served as a 2008-2009 Donald W. Reynolds Fellow in the Missouri School of Journalism. He devoted his Fellowship year to the question, “What is the Journalist’s Creed for the 21st Century?” His research explored how shifting elements, such as the relationship between journalists and the public, affect the values and principles of journalists today and in the future.
Fancher was 2009/2010 chairman of the ethics committee of the American Society of News Editors. He is president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government. He serves on an advisory committee to the Fordham University Graduate School of Business and is a frequent speaker at journalism, civic and academic gatherings.
In 2009, the Western Washington Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists presented Fancher its award for Distinguished Service to Journalism.
He and his wife, Elaine Bowers, live in Seattle.
Frank Garred, journalist
Areas of Expertise
Public Meetings
Public Records Access
Biographical Information
Frank Garred is former editor/publisher of the Port Townsend Jefferson County (WA) Leader; former publisher of the Sequim (WA) Gazette and Forks (WA) Forum; past president of Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, National Newspaper Association, International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors; graduate of the University of Washington with a journalism degree (1958); served seven years on the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications; was interim founding-executive director of the Washington Coalition for Open Government; serves on the Washington State Public Records Exemptions Accountability Committee as the governor’s appointee, and worked many years as a reporter and editor for daily and community newspapers. Over the past six years he has been a Journalism instructor at Western Washington University and Peninsula College.
Kathy George, Attorney, Johnston George LLP
Areas of Expertise
Public Records Act
Freedom of Information Act
Constitutional Free Speech Protections
Records Request Litigation
Biographical Information
Holding public agencies accountable is the focus of Kathy George’s law practice. She represents organizations and individuals in trial and appellate courts with issues under the state Public Records Act, the federal Freedom of Information Act, and constitutional free-speech protections. She also appeals public schools’ decisions about services for children with disabilities, and deal with cities and counties on environmental and land-use issues. She is a partner at Johnston George LLP in Seattle.
Prior to becoming a lawyer, Kathy George worked for 15 years as a reporter and assistant city editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, focusing on government and political coverage. She previously worked at the Tacoma News Tribune covering county government and police news.
Toby Nixon, WashCOG President Emeritus
Areas of Expertise
General principles of open government
Basics of Public Records Act and Open Public Meetings Act and how to use them
Open government legislation
Activities of the Washington Coalition for Open Government
Biographical Information
Toby Nixon is a former member of the Kirkland City Council. He previously served as a fire commissioner, and in the Washington State House of Representatives from 2002 through 2006 where he was ranking member of the committee which has responsibility for overseeing Washington’s open government and election laws. He is the 2012 inductee to “Heroes of the 50 States: The State Open Government Hall of Fame” by the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2006, he received the “Freedom’s Light Award” from Washington Newspaper Publishers Association in recognition of his work to protect and advance First Amendment interests in Washington. He’s a member of the Washington State Historical Records Advisory Board, and serves as an officer and board member of a number of local non-profit organizations. Toby has worked in the computer industry for over 40 years, previously at Microsoft and currently at the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.
Sam Pace, Association of REALTORS®
Areas of Expertise
Litigation and Municipal Law
Biographical Information
Sam Pace is a REALTOR® with Executive Real Estate and a contracted Housing Specialist for the Seattle-King County Association of REALTORS®. He is a Past President of the Washington REALTORS® and has been honored as King County’s REALTOR® of the Year. Mr. Pace served as the founding chairman of the South Sound Chambers of Commerce Legislative Coalition and has served on the boards of more than a dozen community and professional organizations. Prior to his career in real estate Mr. Pace was a partner in the Springfield, Oregon, law firm of Harms, Harold, Leahy & Pace where a significant portion of his practice involved litigation and municipal law. He received his bachelor’s degree (double major in urban and regional government, and political science) and MBA from Willamette University, and is a graduate of the University of Oregon School of Law.
Gerry Pollet, Executive Director, Heart of America Northwest
Areas of Expertise
Advising citizen groups how to use public records and open meetings laws in organizing, including WA State and federal laws.
How public records and open meeting laws can be used in local land use, environmental or other organizing efforts. How WA open government laws can assist in preparing for public hearings and commenting on proposals.
How WACOG can help citizens and local groups.
Biographical Information
Gerry is an attorney and Executive Director of Heart of America Northwest (“The Public’s Voice for Hanford Clean-Up”) and Legal Advocates for Washington. He has many years of experience combining legal and organizing strategies on local and statewide issues using Washington’s Public Records Act, Open Public Meetings Act, and the federal Freedom of Information and Federal Advisory Committee Acts.
Gerry has been a leader in advocating “openness” policies for the notoriously secretive US Department of Energy, as well as a leader in neighborhood and growth management/land use efforts for citizen groups relying on public records and open meeting laws.
Gerry serves on the Board of the Washington Coalition for Open Government as Secretary, and also on the Legal Committee.