With all three District 30 legislators running for re-election this year, residents can be happy knowing that Sen. Mark Miloscia and representatives Kristine Reeves and Mike Pellicciotti value the public’s right to know and access to information.

In this past Washington state Legislature short session, which ended March 8, all three voted against Senate Bill 6617, which would have exempted the state Legislature from the state Public Records Act.

The background stems from a lawsuit involving the Legislature and access to records. Last September, a group of newspapers, including Sound Publishing, the parent company of the Federal Way Mirror, sued for access to information involving sexual assault and harassment complaints filed involving state lawmakers. In January, a Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled the Legislature is subject to state public disclosure laws like any other state agency.

SB 6617, however, was introduced on Feb. 21 as an emergency measure. Basically, SB 6617 declared the state Legislature was not a public agency and therefore not subject to the Public Records Act, which grants the public access to a wide range of documents and declares which ones are exempt from disclosure. The law would have taken effect immediately and exempted lawmakers from having to disclose a variety of documents retroactively, although it did open up some documents — calendars and communications between lawmakers and registered lobbyists — to disclosure if they were created after July 1, 2018. SB 6617 passed both the Senate and House two days after it was introduced with no public hearing or floor debate and wide margins – 41-7 in the Senate and 83-14 in the House.

In a last-minute deal involving state legislators, Gov. Jay Inslee and some of the newspaper publishers who had initially sued for access to information involving sexual assaults, Inslee vetoed the bill.

Reeves, Pellicciotti and Miloscia all said they opposed SB 6617 for various reasons.

Miloscia said he couldn’t support the legislation, in part because it creates one set of disclosure rules for the state’s executive branch and local governments, but different rules for the Legislature.

Why should legislators be held to a different standard than other elected officials – say a city council member or mayor?

Reeves, who is familiar with adhering to the PRA in her day job, said her records have always been available to the public should they request them and stated if lawmakers had nothing to hide, then there should be no reason they should keep things from the public.

Pellicciotti, who urged the governor to veto SB 6617, said lawmakers can and should do a better job meeting the public’s expectations of transparency.

Transparency is key to all of this.

From introduction to passage, SB 6617 and the whole legislative process has not invited transparency, especially when SB 6617 was 1. passed by emergency and 2. run through the legislative process at break-neck speed. This is ironic considering lawmakers don’t always conduct business at such a brisk pace. It’s becoming commonplace for the Legislature to extend its session multiple times during a budget year to come to an agreement, and the 2017 capital budget, which included numerous requests from a variety of entities and organizations throughout the state, didn’t pass until this January.

It appears the Legislature can move quickly, when their own interests are at stake.

The bottom line is the public is paying the salaries of their elected officials and expects them to represent their interests. When they vote to exclude themselves from being subject to transparency and push through legislation in a hurry, it raises all sorts of red flags.

Transparency is the cornerstone to a successful government system. If the public feels their elected officials are hiding something, how can there be trust?

Fortunately, District 30 residents don’t have to worry about that from their state lawmakers in this regard. Kudos to Miloscia, Pellicciotti and Reeves for recognizing that SB 6617 was not in their constituents’ best interests.

Federal Way Editorial Board members are Publisher Andy Hobbs, Editor Jessica Keller and community members Mike Park, Lori Cornell and Sonja Bert.