Lewis County Commissioner Bobby Jackson, center-left, laughs along with fellow commissioner Gary Stamper, left, and Edna Fund, center-right, during a directors update meeting in January.
Lewis County commissioners Edna Fund and Bobby Jackson claimed Wednesday only one of them can answer any given question from the media when outside of a regularly scheduled commission meeting.
The apparently new policy arose when The Chronicle asked questions about changes to announcements for meetings of the commissioners on a schedule of potential quorums published by the county each week.
Following previous reporting on a 2009 resolution that allows the commissioners to consider every working day at the Lewis County Courthouse a public meeting without additional notice, an attorney for the county said a new policy would add more detailed information on meetings. A lawsuit was filed against the commissioners for alleged illegal meetings last month.
When The Chronicle attempted to ask commissioners Fund and Jackson about the issue, they and clerk Candace Hallom said the reporter could only ask one commissioner the question.
Hallom, Jackson and Fund said that if a reporter called each commissioner separately and asked them each the same question, it would be a violation of the state Open Public Meetings Act. Hallom also said the legality might depend on the question asked.
She and the commissioners told The Chronicle that it would violate a portion of the act prohibiting “serial meetings.”
The OPMA does not prohibit elected officials from responding individually to media inquiries.
The OPMA could prohibit a county staff member or official from polling members of the commission to allow the board to gain a consensus outside of a public meeting, according to Nancy Krier, assistant state attorney general for open government. However, she said no court in Washington has ruled that such a violation has taken place
As for the public notices of potential quorums, the Board of Lewis County Commissioners has updated its weekly calendar to include links to agendas and will give more advance notice of meetings.
“It goes above and beyond the notice requirements in the Open Public Meetings Act,” said Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor David Fine.
He said the calendar itself will remain much the same, but each item will contain a link to an agenda. All items will be posted at least 24 hours in advance, he said.
Fine said the OPMA requires a governmental body to act in “good faith” to put all intended items of discussion on its agenda in advance. The Act does allow a commission to discuss a topic not previously on an agenda, but Fine said the commissioners don’t plan on doing that.
“When a new topic comes up, they will tell staff to schedule another meeting 24 hours in advance,” he said.
The new calendar policies were implemented Monday. Fine said he has been advising members of the Commissioners’ Office staff on requirements of the OPMA since the middle of April with regard to the changes to the calendar.
The full text and explanations of the Open Public Meetings Act are available at www.atg.wa.gov/open-government-resource-manual. More information is available at MRSC.org.
