Gov. Kate Brown swept into office in 2015, declaring: We “must strengthen laws to ensure timely release of public documents.” But her record is disappointing.

We wrote recently about the way Brown is denying the public access to legislation state agencies plan for the 2019 session until after the November election is over.

That’s not timely release of public documents. And we remembered other incidents that subverted open government. Her administration has done things such as prioritized controlling information, not releasing it; manipulated the use of redactions; tried to conceal disciplinary records; and made figuring out the law a guessing game.

Here are more details on those lowlights:

We had a terrible time getting records from Brown’s government earlier this year on what the Oregon Department of Human Services was doing to improve foster care. A state audit had characterized its efforts to fix recurring problems as “slow, indecisive, and inadequate.” We wanted to find out what the agency was doing to turn that around. The agency failed to respond to our records request in the timely way required under state law. Emails we obtained showed Kate Kondayen, who worked in Gov. Kate Brown’s office, wanted to hold off releasing any information and release it, instead, in a packaged media campaign. That’s not timely release of documents.

The Oregonian requested records earlier this year regarding Brown’s March dismissal of three state environmental commissioners. They were dismissed shortly after they hired Richard Whitman, Brown’s former adviser, as the head of the Department of Environmental Quality. Brown’s office turned over 786 pages of records about Whitman and the other finalist. So did the DEQ. Brown’s office redacted the records. The DEQ did not. And what was interesting about what Brown’s office redacted is that it redacted criticism of the other candidate but not of Whitman. It also redacted some praise of Whitman. In other words, the redactions painted Whitman in a less favorable light. Those disclosures were perhaps timely, but Brown’s office used the power of its office to tilt what the released documents revealed.

In 2017 Brown asked legislators to introduce a bill that would keep hidden from the public the names of veterinarians fined by the state Veterinary Medical Examining Board. That’s timely release of public information? Brown’s office did pull out of the bill — perhaps because The Oregonian was working on a story about it.

We don’t know what it’s like these days, but in 2016, The Bulletin’s reporter covering Salem noted the governor’s office was slow to fill requests for her calendar, compared to governors in other states. Related documents from Brown were often so heavily redacted to be useless. That’s timely release of public documents?

One of the most puzzling episodes regards the laws of Oregon. Oregonians should be able to find out what the law is and what it’s not, right? Well, the state’s Department of Energy handed out tens of millions of dollars in tax credits that maybe should have never qualified. Why do we “maybe”? The credits were apparently sold at bigger discounts than those permitted under the law. That disturbed legislators — let alone the public. The department didn’t clear up the mess. It said it made its decisions based on legal advice and refused to disclose what the legal advice said the law says. Brown declined to compel the state to release the information. That’s her idea of informing the public what government is doing?

This list isn’t comprehensive. Most notably, Brown signed a bill that did try to speed up disclosure of documents. But any credit she is owed for signing that bill has been undermined by her record on government transparency and openness.