Madison-Andersen-Bunting Awards Event Tickets Available: Annual Breakfast is Sept. 20

Tickets are still available for the annual Madison-Andersen-Bunting awards breakfast on Friday, Sept. 20 when the Washington Coalition for Open Government honors leaders in open government efforts.

Retired King County Superior Court Judge William Downing will be honored with the Madison Award; longtime WashCOG executive director Elly Snow Walker will receive the Andersen Award; and watchdog journalist Eli Sanders of The Stranger will receive the Kenneth F. Bunting Award.

The presentation will take place at 8 a.m. on Sept. 20 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. Tickets cost $50 each and are available on the WashCOG website; a limited number will be available at the door.

Madison Award: Judge William Downing

Judge William Downing

Judge Downing, who serves on the Washington Public Disclosure Commission, is being recognized with WashCOG’s James Madison Award for his long commitment to the cause of open government. He retired from his 40-year public service career in early 2017. After 12 years as a King County prosecutor, he served for 28 years as judge of the King County Superior Court. During that time he chaired the Bench-Bar-Press Liaison Committee for more than 16 years, mediating numerous disputes that balanced interests involving access to public records. He also authored the state’s rule giving news cameras broad access to courtrooms.

“I have always held to the fairly simplistic view – one that seems obvious to me – that our courts are only truly successful in achieving justice when the public is able to see and understand what it is that they are doing,” Downing said. “Anything the bench, the bar and the press can do to help with that process benefits each of them and, especially, serves the public interest.”

Downing was named a “Distinguished Alumnus” of the University of Washington Law School and has received the Williams Nevins and Robert Utter Awards for promoting ethical and democratic values. He has promoted civic education in many capacities, such as coordinating an annual mock trial competition for high school students while serving on the YMCA Youth & Government Board of Directors. He notes that he is also the son of journalists; his father was assistant city editor for the Albany, N.Y. daily and his mother was a columnist for a local weekly.

Andersen Award: Elly Snow Walker

Elly Walker

Walker, who for many years owned Seattle Operating Support, served as executive director of the Washington Coalition for Open Government and other association clients. As president of the association management and event planning company, she worked with a variety of associations, supporting their boards of directors, working on events and managing finances.  Before becoming an association manager, Walker worked in the financial services industry. She managed people and projects for forty years before retiring in 2018.

WashCOG is awarding Walker the James Andersen Award in recognition for her care of our organization above and beyond its role as her client. Anderson, a former chief justice of the Washington State Supreme Court, was a founding board member of the Coalition.

“She was the glue that held the Coalition together and kept the board on task and moving forward,” said Mike Fancher, a WashCOG board member and the 2018 Andersen Award recipient. “Her attitude, and that of her employees, was, ‘What can I do for you? How can I help?’”

Bunting Award: Eli Sanders

Eli Sanders

Sanders is being honored with the Kenneth F. Bunting Award for his investigation into online campaign ads in regard to Washington’s regulations and disclosure laws. He reported dozens of stories for The Stranger in the past two years, and one result was the state attorney general filing lawsuits against Facebook and Google for violating state access laws.

Sanders, an associate editor at The Stranger, won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2012 for his reporting on the murder of Teresa Butz, and his book, “While the City Slept,” further examines the crime and the contribution of mental health care conditions in the country.

When reporting on Google and Facebook, Sanders also covered the tech firms’ attempts to change Washington’s disclosure laws so they would not have to comply, and then their announcement that they would stop selling political ads in Washington because of its regulations. The initial action by the AG resulted in a $455,000 settlement, but the companies are still under scrutiny.

“I’m very honored that the Washington Coalition for Open Government is recognizing this project,” Sanders said. “To this day, Facebook and Google continue to flout Washington state’s tough election ad transparency laws. The latest consequence: New investigations of both companies by the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission and, with these new investigations, the looming potential for more fines and further legal action by the state attorney general.”

A number of local journalists were also named as runners-up for the Bunting Award:

• The Tri-City Herald, for its regular use of Washington’s Public Records Act in its investigations, notably including 911 dispatch logs that gave insight into an unusual murder and into detective work in another case, as well as broadening coverage of a suicide threat by a Superior Court judge into a study of isolation and stress on the bench;

• The Daily Evergreen, the student newspaper of Washington State University, which relied heavily on the PRA to expose sexual harassment complaints against former Rose Bowl quarterback Jason Gessler;

• Will Rubin, reporter for The Chronicle in Centralia, for his effective use of the PRA and investigative reporting to expose mismanagement of public funds and lax background checks of a new manager of the local public transit district;

• Austin Jenkins of Northwest News Network and Jim Brunner, of The Seattle Times, who teamed on an examination of Gov. Jay Inslee’s out-of-state travels for political activity, relying heavily on PRA requests involving State Patrol costs, schedules and other issues.

• Alyssa Evans and Natalie St. John of the Chinook Observer in Long Beach, who challenged the Astoria, Oregon police who withheld records about an incident involving Klan-recruitment efforts;

• The staff of The Yakima Herald who reported aggressively on issues of secrecy, mismanagement and corruption in Wapato city government, which has drawn the interest of both the Washington state Auditor and the State Attorney General, as well as the Yakima County Prosecutor.

The Madison-Andersen-Bunting Awards event is scheduled every year during Constitution Week, which commemorates the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.