Mayor asks that council limit e-mail discussions

Review shows members writing about issues during meetings

By Matt Batcheldor | The Olympian • Published January 05, 2009

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OLYMPIA – Mayor Doug Mah has urged Olympia City Council members to curtail their use of e-mail during council meetings after he learned that council members had e-mailed each other on council business during meetings.

Discussing public comments in private

Councilmen Jeff Kingsbury and Joe Hyer had an electronic conversation on Sept. 9 about whether to extend the public comment period at a council meeting, which typically lasts 30 minutes.

"I thought no one was going to support extending public comm(ent)?" Hyer wrote to Kingsbury.

"Well, with this many here, I think we need to, don't you?" Kingsbury replied.

"TJ didn't. ..." Hyer replied, referring to former Councilman TJ Johnson.

"Why?" Kingsbury replied.

"If the outcome is predetermined ... why bother?" Hyer replied.

"Hmm. OK. Well, I've certainly testified in my lifetime against sinking ships. ... but, OK."

In an interview, Hyer said the e-mail conversation was held after the fact, after the council closed public comment. Hyer said he wanted to extend the comment period to give more time to people commenting on Olympia's Nuclear Free Zone Act. But a majority of the council didn't agree.

He said Johnson, a supporter of the nuclear-free classification, had said not to bother extending public comment because the outcome was already determined. A majority of the council eventually voted for repealing the Nuclear Free Zone.

Assistant Attorney General Timothy Ford wrote Mah to criticize the e-mail "deliberations," which he said were inconsistent with the state Open Public Meetings Act.

"E-mail deliberations on public matters that are concurrently being discussed in a public meeting are wholly inconsistent with the requirements of the OPMA and should cease," Ford said in his Dec. 8 letter to Mah, in response to a complaint.

He also recommended that the council restrict e-mails and personal Internet access during meetings.

In a Dec. 31 reply to Ford, Mah said he shared Ford's concerns.

The Olympian obtained council e-mails from six meetings from Sept. 9 to Nov. 3 — the period Ford reviewed. Discussions included sizing up votes and, in one case, insulting a member of the public.

Ford does not say the council is violating the open meetings act, just that its actions are inconsistent with it. But he suggests the council isn't following best practices.

"At the very least, you could say that the spirit of the law is not being followed," he said.

Council members Joan Machlis, Joe Hyer, Jeff Kingsbury, Karen Messmer, Rhenda Strub and Craig Ottavelli sent at least one e-mail to another council member at meetings during the period. Mah did not. Hyer and Kingsbury wrote most frequently.

The e-mails are reproduced with spelling and grammatical errors intact.

Setting up a vote

In several e-mails, council members discussed topics that were before the council on the given night. In an exchange on Sept. 23, Kingsbury appeared to try to line up enough votes to release a property from the moratorium on development in Chambers Basin in southeast Olympia.

He wrote to Hyer, "Are you comfortable if I make a motion removing the Kramer property from the moratorium area, and I think I can get (Councilman) Craig (Ottavelli) to second. And, do you support that? We haven't had a chance to talk, but I am ready to do that."

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