WATCH: Critics say WA House decision to resume 30-day email deletions threatens transparency

(The Center Square) – A policy allowing Washington state House legislators to delete most legislative emails – including those related to bills and communications with lobbyists – after 30 days has been reinstated by lawmakers. Transparency advocates argue that the change is a blow to open government.

According to the Washington Coalition for Open Government, “the change was announced internally through an email from House Public Records Officer Lucy Collis a week before the July 30 policy change went into effect.”

It’s not clear when House lawmakers halted the destruction of emails or what initially prompted it, but according to WashCOG, the records officer’s email indicated that “email storage had become burdensome as a result of a 2017 court case filed by The Associated Press and other news organizations that established that legislators are subject to the Public Records Act.”

In a Thursday interview with The Center Square, WashCOG Secretary George Erb said, “The automatic destruction of emails that are put in basically delete folders every 30 days is worrisome.”

Erb explained that the new policy states emails sent by the prime sponsor of a bill must be kept, and emails from a lawmaker's constituents have to be kept for one year.

“But anything else can basically be deemed transitory, and it's a very broad, wide-open definition. So, legislators can basically declare anything that's not in the first two categories, is transitory, and can be put in the delete folder and then emptied after 30 days,” he continued. “That would include emails from other legislators commenting on the prime sponsor's bill. It could also include anybody who's trying to influence this legislator.”

So far, the state Senate has not adopted a similar policy.

WashCOG has also been sharply critical of state agencies deleting Teams chat messages after one week. Gov. Bob Ferguson put a six-month pause on the chat auto-delete policy, which is set to expire on August 17.

The Center Square contacted Ferguson’s office to determine if he intends to extend or end the pause.

“I'm Happy to update you when the review is complete; it should be soon,” Communications Director Brionna Aho emailed The Center Square.

Open-government advocate Jamie Nixon has sued the state over the auto-delete policy and is also suing over lawmakers’ use of legislative privilege to refuse to provide public records upon request.

WashCOG has asked all Washington lawmakers to sign a pledge stating they will not invoke legislative privilege to hide public records requests.

“So far, we have six seated members of the Legislature on the pledge. I think two of them are Republican. But obviously, we would love to have more,” Nixon said. “We're not interested in Social Security numbers or credit card accounts. There's so many protections for that already, and I don't know of anybody who's disputing that. We are talking about the ability of voters to know what their government is doing.”

Washington State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh, who also serves as a state representative, responded to a request for comment on the email deletion policy.

“This is a bad policy decision by the Washington Legislature,” he said. “It’s part of the larger problem of so-called legislative privilege, which I believe should only apply in very limited circumstances. Other legislators believe it should be applied more broadly to conceal various communications.”

Walsh conceded he has not signed WashCOG’s pledge not to invoke legislative privilege in public records requests.

“I haven’t signed the pledge,” he admitted in a Thursday text message. “I made a public statement opposing ‘legislative privilege’ before the pledge existed.”

Center Square also emailed the office of Speaker of the House Rep. Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, to comment on the email auto-deletion policy but was informed she was unavailable.

“It’s just not possible for Speaker to connect before your deadline,” wrote Executive Legislative Assistant Gretchen Mazikowski.

“We’re basically seeing a growing culture of secrecy in our state government,” Erb said. “We see a culture of secrecy spreading throughout Olympia and embedding itself and becoming basically the norm for our state government.”