Lewis County Commissioners Sued Over Alleged Public Meetings Act Violations

A lawsuit filed last month accuses each of Lewis County’s commissioners of holding “secret meetings” on more than a dozen occasions since January, violating the state Open Public Meetings Act. 

The lawsuit lists 13 incidents in which a quorum of commissioners allegedly discussed county business without giving notice of the public meetings as required by the Act.

“The Lewis County Board of County Commissioners … willfully and intentionally created a pattern and practice of holding secret meetings outside of the view and scrutiny of the public,” the lawsuit claims. “The result is that people are forced to yield their sovereignty to Lewis County’s secret and opaque government decision-making process in violation of the Open Public Meetings Act.”

The lawsuit was filed April 21 in Thurston County Superior Court by Renton attorney Joseph Thomas on behalf of clients Brian Green and Brian Cortland. It names Lewis County’s three commissioners — Gary Stamper, Edna Fund and Bobby Jackson — as defendants. 

Thomas and Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor David Fine, representing the county commissioners in the case, said they could not comment on the case while it is pending. 

A trial-setting hearing is scheduled for Aug. 25.

The lawsuit comes weeks after The Chronicle reported on a 2009 resolution that allows the commissioners to consider every working day at the Lewis County Courthouse a public meeting without additional notice to the public on specific gatherings. The county announced a change in its policy Monday, adding agendas and additional meetings to a weekly calendar of potential quorums. 

Green and Cortland’s lawsuit lists 13 meetings in which the commissioners are accused of violating the state’s Open Public Meetings Act, beginning with a special meeting on a road fund study on Jan. 31. 

According to the OPMA, first passed in 1971, a “governing body,” such as a county commission, must notify and allow the public to attend any meeting in which there is a quorum, or majority of elected officials, and action is taken. Action is defined as any “transaction” of official business, including discussions, according to the state Office of the Attorney General.

Governing bodies are required to publish the schedules of their regular meetings in advance and post them publicly. The agenda must be available 24 hours in advance. 

For special meetings, public notice must be given 24 hours in advance of the meeting. Emergency meetings and closed sessions are allowed under specific circumstances defined in the law.

The lawsuit identifies meetings on Jan. 31, Feb. 24, Feb. 27, March 2, March 3, March 6, March 15, two on March 27, two on April 10, April 11 and April 17 in which violations of the Act allegedly took place.

The lawsuit alleges that the meetings were not included on the commission’s published schedule, that agendas were not available, that notice was not given for special meetings, that commissioners did not disclose when all three planned to attend a meeting outside the county courthouse, and that minutes were not available for all meetings. 

The suit also alleges that action taken by the commissioners proves they have discussed county issues and made decisions outside the public eye. 

For example, the suit notes that at the conclusion of the April 17 Lewis County Commission regular meeting, during a weekly “press conference,” the commission announced the creation of a panel to discuss possible county government reorganization. 

Green and Cortland’s suit argues that the panel had not previously been discussed at a public meeting, and therefore concluded the commission must have discussed it previously, in a “secret” meeting. 

The suit also includes a meeting on March 2, at which commissioners called a last-minute press conference to discuss a reorganization of leadership of the county’s 911 center. The Chronicle received formal notification of that meeting 15 minutes in advance. 

The commission justified the legality of that meeting, and with other last-minute gatherings of a quorum, using a 2009 resolution that states the commission is in session from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, within the courthouse. 

In March, commissioners and the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office told The Chronicle the 2009 resolution made it unnecessary for the commission to give advance notice of meetings such as the March 2 press conference, because they were technically already scheduled to be in session by the ordinance. 

The ordinance was adopted after a state Auditor’s Office report brought concerns about compliance with the OPMA to the commission’s attention, Fine told The Chronicle.

Fine said the resolution and the commission’s calendar and agenda system were part of an effort to address their concerns. Auditor’s Office staff indicated that it would resolve their concerns, Fine said. 

“The county commissioners have been told by the state auditor that after the introduction of the weekly calendar system, all was good,” he said. 

The Washington State Coalition for Open Government is currently investigating the county commission’s compliance with the OPMA through public records requests.

Thomas said Green and Cortland’s lawsuit does not specifically challenge the 2009 resolution.  

Fund referenced the lawsuit at a meeting Tuesday with the county’s”blue ribbon” task force on county government when discussing the burden large and broad public records requests place on the commissioners’ office. 

She said the commissioners’ office has recently been the recipient of an increasing number of overly broad public records requests. One person alone has filed 370 public disclosure requests, she said. 

Both Green and Cortland have previously sued Lewis County for alleged public records act violations. 

“We are continuing to get requests that are ‘any and all,’” she said, referring to requests that ask for all county records on a topic, often amounting to thousands of documents.

The county expects to spend $500,000 on filling public records requests this year, Fund said. 

Green and Cortland’s lawsuit concludes by asking a judge to issue an “order stating the Lewis County Board of County Commissioners knowingly and intentionally violated the Open Public Meetings Act for each meeting plead above in the complaint.”

The parties also ask a judge to void all action taken by the commission that is determined to have violated the Act, and an order for a writ of mandamus stopping the commission from meeting “for the purpose of stopping violations or preventing threatened violations of the Open Public Meetings Act.

Green and Cortland also request $500 for the first violation and a $1,000 penalty for each subsequent violation of the Act, as provided by state law.