Accidental’ transparency advocate retires from leadership role, remains active in cause

Toby Nixon, a longtime senior program manager at Microsoft, never envisioned himself an advocate for government transparency and open records laws.

It wasn’t until Nixon was appointed to the Washington Legislature in 2002 that he gave any thought to how open records laws, when poorly written and poorly enforced, damage civic engagement and erode public trust.

Digging into Washington state’s cumbersome Public Records Act, and noticing exemptions swallowing the rules, lit a spark in Nixon, a Libertarian. He made it his focus to restructure, clarify and strengthen Washington’s law. He gained attention for his work, was elected to his once-appointed seat as state representative, and joined the board of the Washington Coalition for Open Government.  

Reluctantly, he acknowledges, he agreed to serve as vice president, thinking the role wouldn’t require too much work. But soon after, the president resigned, and Nixon ascended to the top spot — as an “accidental president,” in Nixon’s words. 

After 13 years in the role, Nixon retired in February, handing the presidency to Mike Fancher, former executive editor of The Seattle Times. Nixon will remain with the coalition as president emeritus.      

“My passion is about making sure everyone can make a public records request, not about me, personally,” Nixon said. “I want to see us preserve the sovereignty of the people. The people can’t be in charge if they don’t know what the government is doing.”

Nixon points to the coalition’s increased stature, and the state law’s improved structure, as meaningful progress. State courts, legislators and members of the public often seek the coalition’s advice on matters of transparency. And the state’s Public Records Act, now disentangled from the state’s campaign finance laws, makes more sense and is easier to use.   

Challenges to transparency remain. Nixon says records requesters too often face arbitrary and intentional delays. Governments, institutions and politicians too often invoke attorney-client privilege when it’s not warranted. Offices overseeing records requests too often are starved of resources and staff. 

And there’s the challenge of educating people of the importance of transparency laws. To that end, the Washington Coalition runs an annual high school essay contest, in honor of a former board member and attorney.   

“I would love to see more materials, appropriate for high school students, that civics teachers or even yearbook teachers could use to teach and promote the concepts of government transparency and accountability,” said Nixon, who remembers “falling in love” with the study of civics and government, thanks to a junior high school teacher in his hometown of Redding, Calif. 

Fancher, the new president of the Washington Coalition, said Nixon leads by example, uniting people to promote transparency.   

“He embodies the spirit that WCOG truly is a coalition whose members can, and often do, disagree with each other but stand together to fight for openness in government, believing it is the best way to ensure accountability and preserve public trust,” Fancher said.

Toby Nixon