Agency unveils 'Active Rules Tracker' to map rulemaking activity

The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board heard a demonstration of a new Active Rules Tracker that agency staff said is now live on lcb.wa.gov.

Dr. Sarah Oke, of the agency research program, introduced the tool and said it “transforms the way people can understand what rules projects are currently ongoing and recently completed, as well as how they can participate in the rulemaking process.” She described a multi‑phase development process that included internal iteration and end‑user testing with about 15 participants from tribal, government, public‑health and industry groups.

Dr. Nick Glodoski walked board members through the dashboard landing page and snapshot metrics. “You can see that there are currently 12 open rule projects,” he said, and he showed filters that let users narrow projects by topic area (liquor, cannabis, general rulemaking), origin (legislature, petition, internal) and date range. He also demonstrated links to petition responses and to board meeting pages to make public comment and follow rule timelines easier for stakeholders.

Board members commended the work as improving transparency and customer service. The dashboard team said the current display goes back to the start of fiscal year 2025 (July 2024) and that expanding historical coverage is planned as the database standardization continues. The agency encouraged stakeholders to use the tracker to find upcoming stakeholder sessions and to contact the rules team via automated email links embedded in each project record.