BELLEVUE—Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown was the keynote speaker at the annual Sunshine Breakfast hosted by the Washington Coalition for Open Government on Friday morning, March 14, where he pledged his commitment to maintaining an open and transparent government.
“My philosophy is that open government is a bedrock for all public service. It is how we build trust in the community. It is how we know how to best serve the public. Being transparent is how the public holds us accountable and moves our work forward,” said Brown.
This is not a new commitment for Attorney General Brown. When he served as council for former Washington State Governor Jay Inslee in 2013, Inslee became the first Governor in Washington State history to never exert executive privilege. Brown said this is exemplary of how a government can still operate at a high level while adhering to that pledge, noting he hopes state legislators follow suit this current, and future, session(s).
Brown’s Office leads an Open Government training program which trained more than 7,000 public servants in 2024 across the state. His office also trains hundreds of employees on the public records act to ensure they know what is required of them.
Additionally, the AG’s office responded to over 200 requests and concerns regarding navigating the public records process. But he said there is still much more work to be done.
“The government’s committed transparency reflects the responsibility to appeal to the public. It shows how much we believe in our ability to improve people’s lives and how much we believe in this experiment called democracy,” said Brown.
Brown continued that free speech, and freedom of press, are both under attack under the country’s current administration.
“The President talks about being a free speech President but he is literally limiting access to trusted and independent media and replacing that with obviously compromised reporters that he personally favors,” said Brown. “The President and his administration have deleted entire databases of taxpayer funded information on health, on climate, on civil rights and other subjects that will never now see the light of day.”
Brown continued to criticize President Donald J Trump’s disregard for the constitution while silencing his political opponents at every opportunity to create a “culture of fear and intimidation.”
He applauded Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie’s recent victory of the President’s attempt to limit the firms access to federal buildings and halt security clearances. A federal judge, this week, temporarily halted these restrictions.
The Washington Attorney General’s Office is the second largest law firm on the West Coast, second to the Attorney General’s Office in California, with more than 800 lawyers working in offices in 13 different cities and nearly 1,900 employees.
Prior to AG Brown’s speech, Emcee Susannah Frame, spoke about her tenure as an Investigative Reporter for King 5 and some of the challenges she’s faced accessing public records over the years, from still awaiting information from a public records request submitted in 2012, to receiving a records request from the University of Washington so redacted the files were solid black save for just two words.
Washington State Coalition for Open Government Executive Director Juli Bunting also addressed the crowd for the last time before retiring
“WashCoG’s mission is to protect people’s right to know and to do that we need to help more people understand why that’s important,” said Bunting. “Secrecy cannot be the default it has to be the very rare exception, not the rule, or we risk everything. We all have a stake in what happens next. Everyone has a rule in ensuring that our government behaves in a way that we need it to.”
Although Bunting is retiring from her role as Executive Director this year, she said that her work with WashCoG is far from ending. She hopes to continue her work in a different capacity after this year either as a Board Member or volunteer.
Awards Ceremony
At Friday morning’s breakfast event, the Washington Coalition for Open Government honored the following recipients with awards recognizing their pivotal contributions to open government over the last year.
The Key Award was granted to Daniel Beekman with the Seattle Times for utilizing the Public Records Act to bring to light discrepancies in state laws, policies, and treatment of diverse populations in trouble though his story ‘Life and Death in Yakima.’
Beekman’s story chronologizes how two men, both suffering from a mental health crisis, were treated differently resulting in one receiving treatment and the other tragically died in custody.
The Bunting Award was granted to Daniel Walters, a Reporter for InvestigateWest, who broke a story about discrepancies across the state regarding public records access and efficiency.
Walters further noted the increasingly restrictive legislation that makes processing records requests more difficult, with more and more redactions every year.
The Anderson Award was granted to Robert McClure, WashCoG Board Member and Chair of the Coalition’s Government Committee, who took his responsibilities to new heights – establishing an alert system to notify WashCoG supporters when bills of interest are in front of the legislature and tirelessly monitoring lawmakers’ attempts at secrecy.
The Ballard Thomspon Award was granted to members of the Washington State Legislature who have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the cause of open government. These law makers include: Representative and former House Speaker Frank Chipp (D-43), Rep. Paul Harris (R-17), Sen. Mark Mullet (D-5), Sen. Ron Muzzall (R-10), Rep. Tina Orwall (D-33), Sen. Jamie Pedersen (D-43), and Rep. Gerry Pollet (D-46).
Lastly, the Nixon Award was granted to the Tri-City Herald, based in Kennewick, for embracing a long-standing editorial support for transparency while “walking the talk,” according to emcee Frame, “every day.”
“We applaud their hard work and honor them with this award,” said Frame.
The Washington Coalition for Open Government’s annual 2025 Sunshine Breakfast and Awards Program was held at the Embassy Suites in Bellevue on Friday, March 14, from 7:30 a.m. until 9:30 a.m.
The Washington Coalition for Open Government (WashCOG) advocates for the people’s right to access government information.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
