I read with much interest this week an article by Chronicle reporter Justyna Tomtas detailing yet another “technical violation” of Washington State’s Open Public Meetings Act by county commissioners Bobby Jackson and Gary Stamper.
The story, “Commissioners Appear to Have Again Violated Open Public Meetings Act,” detailed a situation in which Jackson and Human Resources Director Archie Smith were discussing union negotiations as they relate to health benefits for employees. While this conversation was happening, Stamper walked into the space where the discussion was taking place and remained for part of the discussion.
This specific instance itself isn’t necessarily huge news, but its placement in the grander scheme of the commissioners and their apparent inability to consistently follow the law is. Let’s not forget that the commissioners just paid out more than $57,000, pursuant to a lawsuit settlement, for previous violations of the same act in the same calendar year.
This instance was also somewhat different, though.
Where Commissioner Jackson previously had voted against the most recent OPMA settlement based on “principle” — and in doing so, demonstrating defiance of OPMA laws — here, he openly and humbly stated, on record, that he and Stamper made a mistake.
This was a marked attitude change for Jackson, and it leads me to believe that he is finally starting to grasp why these laws matter and how they protect the citizens’ right to be involved. Or, simply that these mistakes can absolutely lead to additional financial heartburn for the commissioners, county and taxpayers.
It’s important to note, as Washington Coalition for Open Government President Toby Nixon stated in Tomtas’ original article, as a commissioner, you don’t have to be actively participating in a meeting to create a quorum and begin to violate public trust.
“Action means discussions, deliberations and presentations, so it can be completely passive. You can be in a meeting where the one member that puts it over being a quorum does not actively participate, all they do is passively listen, and it’s still a meeting,” he said.
So, for Jackson to be open about the fact that it was unintentional, while still recognizing that it wasn’t OK, is really refreshing.
It also bring up an interesting thought: Would commissioners still be as likely to run into this problem if there were more than three commissioners? Should it be this easy to make a “mistake” and accidentally create a quorum?
Three commissioners sharing common office areas seems like it’s ripe for an easy — even if accidental — abuse of public trust. Up until this year, the commissioners relied on a 2009 resolution that required every working day in the courthouse a public meeting from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. That changed after The Chronicle’s reporting on the resolution, and the subsequent lawsuit. The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office approved a new policy bringing the commissioners in line with the OPMA and requiring 24 hours of notice for all meetings involving a quorum.
There was a time when three commissioners running a county or city was acceptable and worked well. But this was a time before county and municipal systems were as evolved as they are today, with complex legal systems, human resources and health care issues, among other things.
On top of that, we simply have more people that deserve government representation at the county level. Has our county outgrown the default three-commissioner format?
After all, if there were more commissioners, it would be more difficult to accidentally create a quorum during day-to-day operations or while out in the community.
One Lewis County, a political action committee formed by the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce, is advocating for Lewis County to consider going from three full-time commissioners, to five part-time commissioners through the home rule charter process, though their main pursuit is for a county manager.
Currently, there are about 75,000 residents in Lewis County in roughly 25,000 households. That means commissioners are currently each expected to represent about 25,000 residents, per commissioner, and about 8,000 households per commissioner.
If we went from a three-member to a five-member commission, that reduces each commissioner to representing about 15,000 residents, or about 5,000 households, each.
As a resident, it’s certainly intriguing to think about having increased potential access to our own county representatives. And, as someone who values the OPMA, it’s certainly attractive to think about reducing the instances in which the public trust could be violated — whether intentionally or not.
OPMA violations don’t have to be intentional to cause indirect harm to citizens by interfering with their right to be present during public meetings.
At the risk of sounding like a squeaky wheel, this is just one more reason for Lewis County to take advantage of the collective effort to examine change at the county level of government here in Lewis County.
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Last year, I used this space of my column as a shoutout to collect mylar blanket donations for homeless individuals and others who struggle to stay warm during winter months. Between December 2016 and February 2017, readers of this column were able to donate more than 1,400 mylar blankets to our local homelessness resource organizations.
If you aren’t familiar with them, mylar blankets are emergency blankets that look sort of like foil. Some people refer to them as “space blankets” and the like. But they really do help keep people warm and dry this time of year.
Hundreds of blankets were donated last year to The Gather Cafe, Hub City Mission, the Lewis County Shelter Program, The Salvation Army, the Riverside Fire Authority, the Chehalis Fire Department and others. Our customer service staff actually distributed some blankets right off the front door stepps here at The Chronicle, directly to homeless residents in the Centralia downtown core.
I began coordinating this effort last year following the death of Jerry Allen Grimm — a homeless man who froze to death in Centralia’s Riverside Park last winter, near the same river where I was baptized into my Christian faith.
In that regard, this coordination seemed the least I could offer, given my platform.
I spoke with several homelessness resource organizations again in the past few weeks. Before coordinating this drive again, I wanted to make sure there wasn’t another item(s) that could be collected. But every single organization I spoke with absolutely raved about the mylar blankets from last year.
So, in that spirit, I’d like to coordinate this effort again. You can purchase mylar blankets in bulk on Amazon.com or locally from Sunbirds Shopping Center. Please send blankets directly from Amazon (or drop off locally purchased blankets in person) to The Chronicle, 321 N. Pearl St., Centralia, WA 98532.
As blankets begin to arrive again this year, I will distribute them personally.
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Brittany Voie is The Chronicle’s Senior Media Developer. She can be reached at bvoie@chronline.com.
