Unfortunately, members of the public will never know the answer to that question because there is no audio or video record of what went on behind closed doors.
The council’s apparent misstep is an excellent example of why the state Legislature must adopt Attorney General Rob McKenna’s bill to allow government agencies to record their closed-door executive sessions. If there’s a question whether the city council or county commission or school board broke the law behind closed doors, there’s proof in the video or audio recording. A judge can review the recording in his or her chambers and determine whether an illegal meeting was conducted.
The actions of the Olympia City Council were called into question when the six council members selected a seventh council member to fill a seat vacated by the election of Steven Buxbaum as mayor.
The six City Council members were equally divided on who should get the appointment. Buxbaum and council members Steve Langer and Nathaniel Jones supported former council member Karen Messmer for the appointment.
Council members Jim Cooper, Jeannine Roe and Karen Rogers favored neighborhood activist Julie Hankins for the appointment.
Deadlocked at 3-3 and rejecting Langer’s ridiculous suggestion to toss a coin, the six council members adjourned into executive session – behind closed doors – to talk about the qualifications, strengths and weaknesses of the two contenders. Council members are allowed to do that under the state’s Open Public Meeting Act.
But this is the point where things got interesting.
When the council members emerged from their closed-door session and before the official 4-2 vote for Hankins, Councilwoman Roe said that “as a group we kind of decided we needed a fresh start on the council.”
What?
That’s an illegal meeting. State law prevents city councils, county commissions, school, port or fire district commissioners or any other public entity from deciding anything in executive session.
Yet here was Roe, on the record, saying the six Olympia council members decided behind closed doors on the need for a fresh start, meaning Hankins over former council member Messmer.
Roe was quick to backtrack after the meeting saying she misspoke and that the council didn’t “decide” anything behind closed doors. City Attorney Tom Morrill was equally quick to say that Roe misspoke. The last thing he wants as an attorney is a councilwoman admitting to an open meeting violation. That’s asking for a lawsuit.
Did the council make a decision behind closed doors in violation of the state law or did Roe misspeak? We’ll never know the answer to that question because like most government entities, the Olympia City Council does not record its executive sessions.
And that’s where Attorney General McKenna comes in.
As part of his legislative request package, McKenna is asking lawmakers to adopt a bill that would allow government bodies to record executive sessions. It’s not mandatory, it’s permissive. Then if a question arises – such as Roe’s alleged misspeak – there’s an audio or video recording to settle the question.
Publicly paid lobbyists for cities, counties, school districts and other government entities have worked against the public’s interests on this issue in previous legislative sessions. They have beaten down legislation requiring recordings of closed-door meetings.
Hopefully, McKenna has erased those concerns by making it clear in the legislation that the tape recordings are not mandatory and that the recordings are not subject to public disclosure.
If the bill passes – and it should – it will be up to Olympia residents to pressure the City Council to tape record closed-door sessions.
As McKenna says, the tape recordings will create a historical record, allow a governing body to review and refute an allegation of an illegal meeting and provide greater accountability for public attorneys that they are not allowing elected officials to hold illegal meetings.
We believe that audio or video recordings of executive sessions would also create a psychological barrier for elected officials – to keep them from straying into subjects and having discussions that they should not engage in behind closed doors.
Had a recording been in place at the Olympia City Council, Roe would have been able to definitively prove that she misspoke and that the council did not conduct an illegal meeting by making a decision in secret.
As it is, without a recording, the public is left only to speculate whether an illegal meeting did or did not take place.
