Op-Ed: Open government is an antidote to mistrust

The city of Blaine is weathering a lengthy and heated controversy over a housing development, resulting in mutual mistrust and recrimination that make it harder to move forward.

One of the best antidotes to mistrust is open government. Embracing transparency would help Blaine City Hall escape the volatile climate that has engulfed it.

The Washington Coalition for Open Government suggests a good first step: City officials, starting with mayor Mary Lou Steward, should follow the letter and the spirit of the state Public Records Act.

This means accepting the act’s underlying premise, in which citizens oversee the government under our democratic republic. Residents of Blaine need to know what City Hall is doing so they can evaluate its performance, personnel and policies.

We’re looking for more assurances that mayor Steward takes the Public Records Act seriously.

During a messy city council meeting on September 8, the mayor complained about the city spending money on public records requests – money that she reportedly said could have been spent on the food bank or police.

We hear this argument all the time. It usually goes like this: Responding to public records requests is nonessential and interferes with government operations. It is a needless expense.

Dismissing records requests as a nuisance completely misses the vital role they play in our civic life. For 53 years, the Public Records Act has proven itself, again and again, as one of our most effective accountability and transparency tools.

Given the public’s need to know what their government is doing, the Public Records Act is an essential government duty, not a last-minute classroom assignment done grudgingly.

Then there’s the matter of law. The Public Records Act is a body of requirements embedded in state statutes. Washington voters told us what they thought about public records when they passed Initiative 276 in 1972. The vote wasn’t close. The ballot measure passed with 72 percent in favor.

Citizens have other expectations of local government that are also required by law – expectations that are not easily dismissed because public officials think they are bothersome.

We expect local government to be ready when disaster strikes. Lawmakers agree. For years, state law has required cities and counties to establish emergency management operations.

Given the civic priority and legal requirements attached to these services, it would be nonsensical for a public official to argue that money spent on emergency management would have been better spent on the food bank. It’s a false choice.

When public officials apply that false choice to records requests, they reveal the low priority they put on the Public Records Act and citizen oversight. They forget that public records belong to the people, not to public officials.

In a related matter, Blaine City Council member Eric Lewis deserves both chastisement and praise for using his personal email to discuss city policy with advocates.

Public officials need to use their agency’s accounts for all of their government-related communications. Doing so makes it easier for their agency to retain their conversations and find them in response to records requests.

Lewis gets a black checkmark for failing to do so.

But he gets a gold star for responding to a records request by searching his personal email and disclosing his government-related messages. Not every public official has fulfilled the Public Records Act’s requirements so willingly.

Civic controversy invariably leads to more public records requests. Just ask the Seattle and Spokane police departments, which were deluged with public records requests following the street unrest of 2020. The reason is simple: People wanted to know what was going on and what their government was doing.

In those moments public records officers often struggle to keep up. Backlogs are common.

Local governments can act proactively to weather those storms. They can store and organize their records in ways that make it easier to find and retrieve documents. They can also fully staff their public records offices. Cross-trained employees can help temporarily if a pile of requests arrives.

We know Washington residents like the Public Records Act because their support is occasionally measured by polls, surveys and their response to records controversies. Too often government officials seem unaware of the act’s popularity.

Transparent government is under assault throughout the state. Its best defenders are the same people who put the Public Records Act on the books 53 years ago. If citizens want to keep open government, they need to publicly insist on it.

George Erb is secretary of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocate for public records, open meetings and informed citizens.