Here’s what we’re working on:
We love the state archives as much as anyone, but trying to fund it with public records fines is an insult to the very premise behind preservation of government documents. This legislation would make it far more difficult for citizens to get access to information that public agencies don’t want them to see.
This editorial will appear in Thursday’s print edition.
The new Tacoma City Council isn’t making much of a first impression. Not even two weeks into the new year, the council is already on notice with a court.
The council’s meeting last Wednesday to pick the finalists for two council vacancies raised many an eyebrow, but by all appearances the council remains unrepentant.
Council members not only excluded the public from its discussion about the 44 applicants – which it’s legally entitled to do – but also went a step beyond the law by privately settling on a list of finalists.
The public got spectacle rather than insight. Eight times in a row, Councilman Jake Fey motioned to name a finalist, Councilwoman Lauren Walker seconded, and the council voted unanimously without discussion.
It was “curious,” as finalist David Boe described the process. To say the least. To this day, Tacoma citizens have no real idea what, in council members’ eyes, set these eight apart in their ability to serve the public.
Here’s what we’re working on for tomorrow:
Poor, suffering Haiti. It’s already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and now it’s been struck by a catastrophic earthquake. The death toll is still unclear, but what is known is that the country will need a lot of help for a very long time. The U.S. and the world community must step up. In the short term, meeting basic needs will take priority. But in the long run, efforts to boost the economy and build more quake-resistant structures are needed.
Tacoma City Council members owe their citizens and their future council …
What exactly happened behind closed doors last week when the Tacoma City Council met to pick finalists for two vacant council seats? Jim Hoard thinks he knows. Hoard, a retired Boeing senior manager and apparent playwright who didn’t make the council’s cut, has a funny take on what might have been said during that suspect executive session last Wednesday.
Council Member Seven: I have a question. Is ‘getting the drift’ allowed? Some people might think we reached a consensus here.
Council Member One: Not at all! When you ‘get the drift’, you’re merely understanding a metaphor. That seems
This editorial will appear in Friday’s print edition.
Tacoma City Council members, in picking two new colleagues, are serving as proxies for voters. If council members understand that role, they did a poor job of showing it Wednesday.
The council met privately for two hours to consider applicants for the vacant positions. When they emerged, council members launched into a process so clean it had to be dirty.
Jake Fey made the motion, Lauren Walker seconded, and the council voted unanimously. No fuss, no muss and certainly no discussion about how the council had winnowed a pool of 44 applicants to eight.
This editorial will appear in Tuesday’s print edition.
To dissuade a local man from making a nuisance of himself, the City of Lakewood wants the Legislature to change the rules for everyone in the state.
Fredric Cornell files public records requests – lots of them. As of late October, the Lakewood gadfly had filed 501 of the 891 requests received by the city in 2009. The city claims it spent nearly $16,000 of staff time and expenses answering Cornell’s requests.
What really galls city officials about Cornell’s requests is not just the volume, but that he doesn’t pay anything to inspect the thousands of records that city officials dig up for him.
This editorial will appear in Sunday’s print edition.
Human needs, education should be top priorties
Yes, The News Tribune’s editorial board does have an agenda. And here it is.
The guiding principles behind our editorials are no secret. We publish them at the beginning of January, each and every year.
This civic agenda is our way of emphasizing priorities we consider essential to the health of the South Sound’s communities.
It evolves each year to reflect changing circumstances, but the underlying principles largely remain the same: educational opportunity, responsive and responsible government, the protection of natural resources, help for the hurting. No region can prosper if such fundamentals are neglected.
The dawn of a new year is a fitting occasion to take stock of the progress made in the last 12 months and set sights for the coming year.
Jason Mercier, one of my colleagues on the board of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, dutifully alerts us to any court rulings involving open meetings and public records laws.
Today Jason slipped this state Court of Appeals decision into our email inboxes, without comment. I don’t know if he even read it. But it’s a real gem. Here’s the gist:
A gentleman named Kevin Michael Mitchell, currently enjoying the state’s hospitality at one of its fine penal institutions, hit a modest legal jackpot in a public-records lawsuit last year. Mr. Mitchell, an avid jailhouse lawyer, asked the Washington State Institute for Public Policy, a quasi-public agency, to provide certain public information concerning a study the institute conducted for the state Department of Corrections.