Washington Attorney General Nick Brown keynoted the March 14 Sunshine Breakfast, which also honored advocates for access in the past year.

2025 Sunshine Breakfast draws record crowd

TVW coverage of the 2025 Sunshine Breakfast:

The Washington Coalition for Open Government honored open-government advocates, journalists and legislators at the annual event March 14.

State Attorney General Nick Brown was the keynote speaker and KING5 investigative reporter Susanna Frame was the host.

The Coalition released an update to its special report, “Your Right to Know.” The 2024 report warned that the public’s right to access state and local government information was eroding at an alarming rate. That erosion has only accelerated, the update says, with open government now under assault.

Honorees include:

Nixon Award: The Tri-City Herald received the Toby Nixon Award for the newspaper’s long commitment to defending Washington state’s transparency laws in its editorial pages and using those laws for the newsroom’s reporting. “The Herald fully embraces its role as an independent institution that monitors the government and informs the community,” said WashCOG President Mike Fancher. Editor Laurie Williams accepted the award on behalf of the staff.

Andersen Award: WashCOG board member and journalist Robert McClure received the James Andersen Award for his work making WashCOG more visible, more effective and better connected in Olympia. As chair of WashCOG’s Government Committee, McClure has ensured WashCOG tracks legislation of concern and interest, alerting others interested in open government issues. The award recognizes a person who does something extraordinary to advance the coalition’s cause. The award is named for the late James Anderson, a state Supreme Court chief justice who was a founding member of WashCOG.

Bunting Award: InvestigateWest reporter Daniel Walters was given the Kenneth F. Bunting Award, recognizing journalistic excellence. Walters examined compliance with public records laws by filing records requests with 15 cities in Idaho, Oregon and Washington in a months-long reporting project. His months-long reporting, “Broken Records: Citizens face growing obstacles to public records — and legislators are making them worse,” documented performance disparities among agencies and a troubling patchwork of rules and obstacles for requesters. The award honors the work of the late Ken Bunting, an executive editor and associate publisher with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer who helped found WashCOG.

Ballard-Thompson Award: WashCOG thanked seven current and former members of the state Legislature who pledged to not use “legislative privilege” to withhold records from the public; each received the Coalition’s Ballard-Thompson Award for outstanding dedication to the cause of open government during a legislative session. State lawmakers recently started claiming a “legislative privilege” to black out information on records requested by the public (or to withhold entire documents). That followed a court decision that said they are subject to the Public Records Act, which originated in a citizen initiative that passed by more than 70%.

Using legislative privilege to withhold information requested by the public “is just morally wrong if you are an elected official,” Pollet said in accepting the award. “It’s sad to see that there are really only just a handful of legislators who pledged not to use this artifice,” Pollet said.

“This issue is very simple,” Chopp said. “You have to fight back and win on this issue because the people are with you.” The Ballard/Thompson Award is named in honor of former Speaker of the House Clyde Ballard (R) and former chief clerk of the house, representative, and senator, the late Alan Thompson (D). Both men were founding members of WashCOG. The lawmakers are:

• Rep. and former Speaker of the House Frank Chopp (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).

• Rep. Gerry Pollet (D-46).

Key Award: Throughout the year WashCOG presents Key Awards to people and organizations who have done something notable for the cause of open government in recent months, perhaps unlocking hidden information.

At the Sunshine Breakfast the coalition presented a Key Award to reporter Daniel Beekman of The Seattle Times for his “Life and Death in Yakima” investigative project. He examined how disparities in social and fiscal status contributed to outcomes in emergencies.