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Dear Friends,
World-famous business leader
and success coach Rob Liano once said, “Each day you are leading by example.
Whether you realize it or not or whether it's positive or negative, you are
influencing those around you.”
So it is important that those
who are in positions of leadership be held accountable for both their own
actions and for those who they lead.
Accountability has been a
central theme during this legislative session for our Majority Coalition Caucus,
which leads the Senate. State government has been a mess – from disastrous
errors at the Department of Corrections that resulted in the premature release
of 3,700 dangerous felons and loss of at least two lives, to deficit-causing
cost-overruns at the Health Care Authority, to wasteful spending, mismanagement
and ineptness at the Department of Transportation.
Providing oversight is one of
the key functions of the Senate, and it is our duty to hold the executive
branch accountable to the people for its failure to operate in an effective and
efficient manner. In this update, you can read about some of the steps we have
taken this session to restore competency and accountability to state
government.
As we reached the halfway point
in this short 60-day session, the pace of legislative work picked up
substantially. We spent Monday and Tuesday voting on bills in the budget committees,
and the remainder of the week voting on bills before the entire Senate. On
Wednesday I was pleased to see the Senate vote unanimously to approve Jason’s
Law – my bill to toughen sentencing guidelines for vehicular homicide. You can
read more about that and other legislative efforts below as well.
I hope you will contact me if I
can be of assistance to you. I also hope you will stop by and say hello if
you’re in Olympia before the end of the session.
Thanks you for the opportunity
to serve as your state senator.
Sincerely,
 Sharon Brown
State Senator
8th District
See my floor speech discussing Jason's Law, which was debated in the Senate this week.
 Click to watch this week's video update!
 Jason Smith and family
On Wednesday the Senate
unanimously approved my bill to let Washington judges hand down stiffer
sentences for vehicular homicide. The measure, known as Jason’s Law, is in
response to a 2015 hit-and-run in Pasco that took the life of 36-year-old
Kennewick father Jason E. Smith.
I know this bill cannot bring Jason
back to his family, but we can honor Jason’s memory by making it clear that we
will take every action possible to prevent reckless criminals from destroying
another family.
Under Senate Bill 6219, the sentence for vehicular homicide
while driving in a reckless manner would increase from the current range of
21-27 months to a range of 78-102 months, which is similar to the current range
for vehicular homicide while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
SB 6219 now goes to the House
of Representatives for its consideration.
Enough is enough. That’s the
message that I often hear from you – the people who send me to Olympia to
represent your voice – when it comes to the incompetence and mismanagement of
state government.
I have heard you and my
colleagues in the Senate Majority Coalition have taken that message – and that
responsibility – to heart.
Senate fires transportation secretary
Last Friday we voted against
confirming Lynn Peterson to lead the state Department of Transportation. This
is a step that was not pleasant to take, but which was necessary, and some
would say long overdue.
Confirmation of gubernatorial
appointments is one of the constitutional responsibilities of the Senate. While
we often allow a nominee to serve without taking action, it is a rare move for
us to actually reject an appointee. The last time it happened was in 1998.
But what we have seen from the
Department of Transportation in the last several years has been unacceptable.
We’ve seen the boondoggle that is “Bertha,” the machine boring a highway tunnel
beneath downtown Seattle; we’ve seen highway bridge pontoons that don’t float, freeway
on-ramps that don’t connect, and tolling projects aimed at improving traffic
flow which actually make things worse. And we’ve seen no indication from DOT
that the agency can complete major projects in a timely and competent manner.
More disturbingly, we’ve seen no signs that the agency has a plan to address
the systemic problems that have led to this situation.
Peterson, who I liked
personally, had been in the job for three years. During that time, not
only did the problems at DOT continue, but they actually got worse. The public,
as well as lawmakers, simply did not have faith that Peterson could bring the
changes the agency needs.
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Corrections
Secretary Dan Pacholke resigns
Less than 24 hours after the
removal of transportation secretary Lynn Peterson, Governor Inslee announced
that he had received the resignation of Secretary of Corrections Dan Pacholke.
Secretary Pacholke’s decision
to step down is regrettable. We had hoped that he would assist us in bringing
much-needed accountability and reform to the department.
As I mentioned in an earlier
update, the Senate Law and Justice Committee hired an investigator and issued
legislative subpoenas for emails, reports and data from the DOC and the
governor’s office, in its investigation of the early release of up to 3,700
violent felons.
Our investigation is likely to
be more independent and transparent than the governor’s own investigation,
which amounts to the executive branch investigating itself. The subpoenas are allowing
the Law and Justice Committee to obtain the same documents being collected for
the governor’s own investigation. If need be, the committee can issue another
subpoena to call people in and ask questions that are on the record, under
oath. Isn’t that is the kind of accountability the public deserves?
We have already learned that at
least two people lost their lives due to this error, and we owe it to those
victims to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
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HCA’s performance earns label of ‘problem agency’
 Ways and Means is the Senate's buget committee.
Last month the Ways and Means Committee,
on which I serve, heard testimony from the Health Care Authority about some of
the ongoing problems at the agency.
HCA officials had explained
what amounts to a new agency project with a price tag of $3 billion over the
next five years. Senator Andy Hill, who chairs the budgeting committee,
responded by calmly but frankly wondering aloud why the committee would even
think about approving such spending, considering how HCA is considered a
“problem agency” from a budget writer’s standpoint.
The budget chair proceeded to
detail how HCA still owes eight reports to legislators – at least three of
which would save money that could be reinvested in health-care services – and
is notorious for late forecasts and big promises of savings that haven’t panned
out. Hill reminded the HCA officials how the agency made a $100 million
budgeting blunder two years ago and the Legislature even had to hire its own
expert to gather health-care data because it couldn’t rely on getting good,
timely data from HCA.
DSHS makes headlines for all the wrong reasons
In early January, Kevin Quigley
(pictured above), then head of the Department of Social and Health Services, resigned
amidst a national scandal concerning the assault of hundreds of employees at
the largest state mental hospital, resulting in millions of dollars in medical
costs. Last year, after inspections found system-wide failures had not been
addressed, the federal government threatened to cut millions in funding to this
facility, which is in Pierce County.
Last week a federal judge said
the only reason she won't hold DSHS in contempt for failing to provide timely
competency services is because she doesn’t believe it will alter the state's
conduct.
Instead, she gave DSHS until
May 27 to fix the problems that have forced mentally ill defendants to wait in
jails for months for competency evaluations and treatment.
The judge says it's necessary
to force the agency to follow a strict schedule because allowing it "to
work according to a schedule of their choosing has resulted in an increase in
wait times."
According to the Associated
Press, a lawyer for the mentally ill defendants said: “The state has failed to provide leadership in
addressing the serious problem of people with mental illness in jails awaiting
competency services.”
A lawyer with Disability Rights
Washington said the conditions their clients face have been appalling.
Spokesman-Review editorial on my Dynamic Fiscal Notes bill
…Senate Bill 5915 [sponsored by
Sen. Sharon Brown] passed unanimously last year. The House version stalled.
The bills would require dynamic
estimates that account for behavioral changes if they move the budget needle up
or down $10 million. The estimates would be a must for spending associated with
corrections, child welfare and mental health.
Any revenue proposal would have
to be submitted 60 days before a legislative session begins by a member of
either the House or Senate ways and means committees.
The bills also call for
formation of a work group to study whether a nonpartisan agency should be
created to prepare fiscal notes for the Legislature, and if the Washington
State Institute for Public Policy might become that agency.
… It makes sense to take out of
executive agency hands sole responsibility for self-evaluating the impact new
legislation might have internally. The estimates might not take the external
effects into account at all.
Click
here to read the full story in the Spokesman-Review.
You are invited to attend
our
8th
District Town Hall
Date: Saturday, March 19
Time: 10 a.m. – noon
Location:
The Arc of Tri-Cities
1455 SE Fowler St.,
Richland, WA 99352
Come join State Representatives
Brad Klippert and Larry Haler and me at a community meeting where you can ask
questions, make comments, and voice your concerns about measures in the Legislature.
Hope to see you there!
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