We were excited when the state Legislature passed, and the governor signed, a bill that created a new committee to help promote openness in government.

The Sunshine Committee is supposed to look at the myriad exemptions to the state’s open public records laws and recommend removal of exemptions that make little sense or are too restrictive.

But the news since the 13-member committee was created has not been good.

First, Gov. Chris Gregoire appointed Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr as chairman.

Carr’s appointment brought howls from open records advocates, who point out that Carr has spent much of his career fighting against disclosure of public information.

Greg Overstreet, the former open government ombudsman for Attorney General Rob McKenna, was quoted in an Associated Press article as saying the governor couldn’t have picked “a more polarizing figure.”

He cited a recent statewide public records request by the Seattle Post- Intelligencer seeking internal affairs investigations concerning police driving while intoxicated. In that case Seattle, whom Carr represented, was the only city to black out virtually all of the information in the reports. Carr also helped argue a famous case that added an incredibly broad exemption to public records openness because of government’s “attorney/client” privilege.

The court ruling on that case, known as “Hangartner,” was a main driver behind the new push by the Legislature for more openness.

Meanwhile, Gov. Gregoire is now refusing to release public information about how she chose members of the Sunshine Committee. The Associated Press filed a request for documents, hoping to track who applied for a seat on the panel and how they were chosen.

Gregoire refused to identify people who applied, citing laws that allow records to be kept from the public if they involve people applying for public employment. As if serving on a parttime committee is akin to applying for a job in state office.

Yes, the governor is withholding information about the committee for public openness. Can she not see the irony in her poor decision?

Creation of the Sunshine Committee comes with much promise. Our state has added more than 300 exemptions to the open records laws created by citizen initiative about 30 years ago. It is important that all of those restrictions be reexamined and many removed.

Government is supposed to serve its citizens first and last. For the last 30 years, too much has been done to limit citizens’ rights in favor of special interests, government workers and politicians.

That’s why the work of the new Sunshine Committee is so important, and why the actions of the governor so far have been so disappointing.