PRESS RELEASE

March 5, 2004

Judge says redacted Boeing documents contain trade secrets

OLYMPIA – Thurston County Superior Court Judge Christine Pomeroy today ruled that nine pages of information related to the governor's deal with Boeing contain trade secrets. The Evergreen Freedom Foundation requested the review in a public records lawsuit against the state.

EFF has been pursuing documents related to the Boeing deal since it was signed in mid-December. The state initially turned over 85 pages, and has since been forced to release nearly 900 pages.

Boeing officials and the state had claimed 40 pages of information contained trade secrets, but eventually released 31 of those pages, some just three days before a court hearing. There were no trade secrets in those documents, but many of them had information about a taxpayer-funded employee training center for which legislators must vote to appropriate funds.

"Getting the information has been like pulling teeth," said Bob Williams, EFF's president. "The governor has abused his authority in the provisions of this contract, and he's been trying to hide the details from legislators and taxpayers. It's bad news when the Executive Branch tries to circumvent the Legislative Branch of our state government."

The attorney general's office argued that legislators were given all the information related to the Boeing deal in January when "three legislative staff members of the House Appropriations and Senate Ways and Means Committees were provided the opportunity [to] view an unredacted version of [the contract and exhibits] . . ." However, these staffers were required to sign confidentiality agreements prohibiting them from disclosing the information to anyone, including legislators.

"Showing it to three legislative staffers who can't discuss it with their bosses is hardly what we'd call being open," said Williams. "EFF has been forced to spend a lot of time and effort to get information that should have been readily available to the public. That's not acceptable."

"We now know the governor's deal with Boeing isn't all it's cracked up to be. Legislators will have to make a decision on whether to appropriate hard-earned taxpayer dollars for some of these provisions, and we hope the information we've been able to expose will be part of their deliberations."

Additional Information
Example of page determined by judge to contain trade secrets

Redacted -- Boeing Employment Resource Center details on December 19, 2003 (trade secret)

Unredacted -- Boeing Employment Resource Center details on February 24, 2004 (no longer trade secret)

Contact: Marsha Richards | Communications Director | 360.956.3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org