Open government bills were debated in 2023 with little action taken

This was a relatively quiet session for bills related to open government. In part that may have been due to the furor over claims by legislators of legislative privilege to limit disclosure of some legislative records. The Legislature is now being sued to resolve whether or not legislative privilege is a legitimate exception under the Public Records Act.

Cities have continued to express concerns about excessive litigation brought by some frequent records requestors. AWC helped craft HB 1597 and its companion SB 5571 that would have maintained transparency of public records but limited the costs and burden of frivolous public records litigation. Unfortunately, neither bill received a hearing likely as a result of the furor mentioned above.

HB 1105 would have required public agencies to include notice of the specific dates of the opening and closing of the public comment period in situations in which they were required by state law to solicit public comment. The bill passed unanimously out of the House but died in the Senate. Similarly, HB 1080 passed nearly unanimously in the House but also failed to pass the Senate. HB 1080 sought to limit the fiscal and administrative burden of responding to a public records request for body worn camera footage in situations in which the requestor was entitled to receive an unredacted copy of the footage as part of another legal process. AWC supported this bill, but it failed due to concerns about imposing costs on those that currently obtain this footage free-of-charge.

The legislature did enact one Public Records Act bill of note, HB 1533. This exempts certain personally identifying information from Public Records Act for public sector employees including city employees who are survivors of domestic violence, abuse, harassment, and stalking. The exemption applies to records of job title, address of workstations, work contact information, and bargaining unit. The employee must provide a sworn statement or other proof of being a victim of domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault, or stalking.