Over the past year, The Chronicle has reported on numerous alleged violations of the Open Public Meetings Act by the Lewis County commissioners.
The commissioners were forced to settle a lawsuit with a payment of $57,000, which includes attorney fees, after our reporters provided news of a 2009 resolution the county claimed essentially absolved them from the requirements of the law. The resolution claimed every working day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the courthouse was one continuous public meeting, with no need for the 24-hour notice called for in the Open Public Meetings Act.
The county has since changed its policy, and our reporters and members of the public now know what the commissioners are talking about and when thanks to updated agendas and calendars.
This is a service to the people of Lewis County who value transparency. While we have been critical of the commissioners on a number of issues, their about-face on this matter — through direction from the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office — has been an encouraging development in 2017.
A recent impromptu meeting of commissioners Bobby Jackson and Gary Stamper was initially believed to have been a misstep — an accidental or unintentional quorum not allowed by the law without public notice — but Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer explained this week the meeting was allowed through an exemption for discussions on collective bargaining in the law.
The simple fact that the commissioners reacted positively, and even apologetically, when asked about the meeting by a reporter shows the Open Public Meetings Act carries greater importance in the Lewis County Courthouse than ever before thanks in part to the watchdog journalism of The Chronicle.
So as long as we’re holding elected officials accountable, let’s talk about the Legislature.
The Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, of which The Chronicle is a member, along with The Associated Press and other news organizations, has filed a lawsuit against the Legislature for public records access.
In 1995, lawmakers quietly altered the definition of legislative records in a way that flies in the face of the will of voters, who in 1972 passed an initiative that required “full access to public records so as to assure continuing public confidence in fairness of elections and governmental processes, and so as to assure that the public interest will be fully protected.”
State lawmakers routinely use the change in definition to reject public records requests. It’s a tragic sidestepping of the law, and one that prevents the public from learning what their elected leaders are doing and when.
Like the commissioners, lawmakers are not exempt from the will of the people who put them in office. The change in definition is no different than the 2009 county resolution that for years prevented the public from knowing what issues the commissioners were discussing and with whom.
If we expect transparency from the commissioners — and we certainly do — then we likewise must demand that the Legislature change its tune on public records, especially at a time when lawmakers have struggled to complete their basic duties, such as the passage of a capital budget.
“How can we as citizens know that our elected officials are making good decisions if we don’t have access to the same information they are using to make those decisions?” Toby Nixon, a Kirkland City Council member and president of the Washington Coalition of Open Government, previously asked The Associated Press.
Freshman state lawmaker Rep. Paul Graves, R-Fall City, has already presented a possible solution. The Legislative Transparency Act, which he announced last week, would remove language that exempts state legislators from the Public Records Act.
We strongly support the proposed legislation, and we think Democrats now in control of both houses of the Legislature should as well, along with their Republican counterparts.
The county commissioners have corrected their course when it comes to the Open Public Meetings Act. It’s time for the Legislature to do the same in regards to the Washington Public Records Act.
