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Sunshine Committee package would alter multiple public-records exemptions, including donor disclosure rules
Summary
House Bill 2,244 implements Sunshine Committee recommendations to change disclosure/confidentiality rules across 13 areas, including removing some categorical exemptions and altering donor-disclosure and archaeological-site protections; supporters said the changes modernize transparency, while universities warned of donor-chilling effects.
Counsel Connor Schiff presented House Bill 2,244 as implementing 13 recommendations from the Public Records Exemptions Accountability (Sunshine) Committee. Changes described include: clarifying disclosure procedures for long-term care ombuds, making certain donor information disclosable for higher-education gifts (name, city, donation amount and conditions), eliminating a requirement that grand-jury reports avoid identifying or criticizing individuals, exempting archaeological-site locations while otherwise making the site a public record, and allowing broader disclosure of certain government analyses and records that had been categorical exemptions.
Witnesses included university and foundation representatives who warned section 2 (donor disclosure) could chill philanthropy in higher education; Connor Hagerty (Washington State University) said confidentiality had helped secure large anonymous gifts. Sunshine Committee members and past chairs argued the recommendations resulted from multi-year deliberation and that many repeals are of statutes that are effectively dead or redundant.
Committee members asked for clarifications about specific sections, and witnesses urged surgical fixes rather than discarding the whole package. No final action was taken at the hearing.
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