Washington Coalition for Open Government

State Rep. Gerry Pollet, a longtime WashCOG board member, was honored with the Freedom’s Light Award by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for his long advocacy of transparency.

Timely op/eds on ongoing access issues appeared recently in The Northern Light and The Seattle Times.

Our September 2025 newsletter is out, with updates on Olympia’s efforts at secrecy, the governor’s overdue policy on message retention and WashCOG’s renewed efforts to reach out to other advocates of access.

Gov. Bob Ferguson will “soon” announce a decision on whether state agencies can resume auto-deleting internal electronic messages, his aide told some media. But does that mean days, weeks or months? And will his decision promote transparency?