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The Washington Coalition for Open Government represents individuals and organizations intent on preserving and protecting Washington's Open Government Laws - Open Records and Open Meetings. Its mission is to represent the public in matters where open government issues are raised, are threatened, or deserves broader exposure.
The Coalition conducts public workshops and forums around the state, involving the public, public officials, and the media in discussing government accessibility as provided in the various statutes that assure such access and accountability from our public agencies.
NEWS ARTICLES 
School board meetings should be televised
News Tribune: July 2, 2008
Surfing TV channels at just about any time of day or night, it's hard to avoid seeing a live public meeting or a rerun of an earlier one. In Pierce County, bodies ranging from the Fife and University Place city councils to the Tacoma Public Utility Board and Tacoma Port Commission put their meetings on the airwaves. Many meetings are also available for viewing online. So why not the Tacoma School Board? Tacoma school officials cite two major reasons for not broadcasting board meetings. Neither stands up to scrutiny. The first reason they give is that some members of the public might use their few minutes of camera time in dubious way - to grandstand, to publicize their Web sites, maybe even say or do things in questionable taste.
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Pasco judge denies inmate's record requests
Tri-City Herald: July 1, 2008
A Franklin County judge says the sheriff's office and jail don't have to give any more documents to a convict who has made hundreds of requests for information about law enforcement officials in Washington. Judge Cameron Mitchell said Monday there was no legitimate purposed behind the 39 requests Allan W. Parmelee filed seeking jail employee photos, records and phone numbers. Parmelee is serving a prison sentence at Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen. He was convicted in 2004 of arson for firebombing of a vehicle belonging to his ex-wife's divorce lawyer.
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Ruling keeps attorney billing records sealed
Yakmia Herald: July 1, 2008
Ruling on a lawsuit filed by the Yakima Herald-Republic, a judge refused to unseal attorney billing records from a possible death penalty case that has cost Yakima County taxpayers just over $2 million. In a five-page decision released Monday, Kittitas County Superior Court Judge Michael Cooper held that the documents sought by the newspaper are court records, not county records, and as a result, Washington State's Public Records Act does not apply in the case. Instead, Cooper said the newspaper must get permission to unseal the records from Yakima County Superior Court Judge James C. Lust, who sealed the records in the first place. Cooper heard the case last week as a conflict-of-interest favor to Yakima County judges.
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Tacoma School Board gets camera-shy about broadcasting meetings
News Tribune: June 30, 2008
Tacoma School Board members aren't ready for prime time. They won't be coming to a television channel near you anytime soon. And unless you make your own video of a meeting and put it up on YouTube, they aren't going online, either. Board members last week nixed the ideas of broadcasting their meetings or taping them for Internet play. "I think it's unnecessary," board member Debbie Winskill said after President Jim Dugan brought the issue up during a retreat last week. "There are a few people in the city who would come to the board meetings just so they could be on TV," she added.
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Ladenburg, Kessler buddies again
News Tribune: June 30, 2008
Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg responded to my blog post yesterday about the attorney general's race.
Based on an earlier item from the TNT's Political Buzz blog, I had noted that House Majority Leader Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, had said she wouldn't endorse Ladenburg for AG - because Ladenburg had opposed her bill requiring local governments to record their executive sessions. Ladenburg says that it it was all a misunderstanding.
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