Olympia, Lacey councils now gather for dinner before public meetings. Does that violate law?
Olympia City Council gathered May 20 for its usual regular council meeting. But before they came together in that forum, the council met for dinner at a separate location inside City Hall for a catered meal.
The city posted public notice of the meetings and the dinner was open to the public, but they did not meet in council chambers, the meeting was not recorded and the agenda was brief. In fact, it was one sentence: “City Council dinner and information sharing.”
Although the public is welcome, there were no members of the public at the meeting except for city staff and The Olympian.
The council had an informational discussion over a hot meal. And that’s the whole idea, Olympia Mayor Dontae Payne said.
“We don’t decide necessarily what will be the topic ahead of time,” he said. “So it really is kind of what’s on the minds of the council members. It’s not something that is planned extensively ahead of time, like a regular business meeting would be. ... We’re just coming together to bond and also just to check in on a few topics where no decision is necessarily being made.”
Lacey City Council has had similar meetings, as well, but the idea is problematic for those concerned about the spirit of open meetings and transparency. A representative of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, an advocacy group, expressed concern about them, when asked by The Olympian.
“It’s inconsistent with the spirit, if not the word, of the Open Public Meetings Act,” said Toby Nixon, a former three-term Kirkland City Council member and president emeritus of the Washington Coalition, which is known as WashCOG.
He took issue with the lack of a detailed agenda, calling it “baloney,” and added that if the city’s practice is to offer recordings of its council meetings and work sessions, it’s simply inconsistent not to do the same for the dinners, Nixon said.
In the beginning
Olympia’s dinner meetings began last year, said council member Robert Vanderpool. The Olympia City Council meets monthly for dinner before its regular council meeting.
In Lacey, the council approved the format in March, had its first meeting in April and its second dinner meeting on May 6 before the regular council meeting. Like the Olympia meeting, the agenda for the Lacey dinner was simply this: “Discussion on local and regional matters.”
But when the minutes for the Lacey dinner meeting were released, they showed the following items were discussed:
▪ Meeting structure of the May 13, 2025, joint meeting with North Thurston Public School Board of Directors.
▪ Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater Visitor & Convention Bureau (also known as Experience Olympia & Beyond) budget and structure.
▪ Voting representation on intergovernmental boards.
▪ Thurston Regional Planning Council executive director vacancy.
▪ Joint Animal Services dispatch data.
▪ Review of the “Jungle” homeless camp in coordination with Jay Burney, Olympia city manager.
▪ Purple Heart Foundation efforts and the Gold Star Memorial.
▪ Community member recognition efforts.
▪ Maple Court transitional housing.
▪ Update on the Lacey police station project budget and timeline.
▪ Target grand opening of Greg Cuoio Park.
Aren’t those topics too serious for dinner?
Should some of those topics demand the light of a council work session or a council meeting?
For example, Maple Court is the name of a former Days Inn motel in Lacey that has been turned into an enhanced homeless shelter. And the “Jungle” is the nickname attached to a longstanding and challenging homeless encampment in Olympia that is between Pacific Avenue Southeast and Martin Way East at Interstate 5.
Prior to the Lacey city council vote approving the dinner meetings, City Manager Rick Walk had this to say:
“It’s kind of important to note that the agendas be informational only, so there wouldn’t be specific agenda items in advance of the meeting, but that once a meeting convenes, the mayor, or whoever is presiding over the meeting, would then call for topics at that particular point in time,” he said.
No decisions are made at the meetings and although there is no public comment opportunity, written comment is allowed, Walk said.
Walk said there is opportunity for the dinner items to receive a wider audience. Toward the end of most council meetings, council members report on their inter-jurisdictional duties. They also could talk about those dinner items, he said.
Among the items discussed at the Olympia City Council dinner: A proclamation for the Northwest Cooperative Development Center, a Habitat for Humanity build day, tenant protections (which prompted a larger housing discussion) and the city’s salary commission.
Tenant protections is a serious topic, too, but Olympia Mayor Payne said the point is not to get too deep on one subject.
“Because we have other topics that we want to get to, there’s not really time to get in the weeds on any particular topic,” he said. “It’s intended to be surface level, a surface level check in with members and move on.”
Olympia and Lacey council members said they support the meetings.
Olympia council member Vanderpool said he had learned about similar meetings taking place in the city of Vancouver and inquired about it for the city.
“It’s an informal time to sit down and talk about issues that’s in a public space,” he said. “We don’t always have that time.”
Lacey council member Carolyn Cox agreed.
Formal council agendas make it hard to raise issues, she said, and they need a new outlet after the Lacey council eliminated its committee meetings. Building relationships is another aspect to the dinner gatherings, she said.
WashCOG’s Nixon agrees with the notion of building relationships — Kirkland City Council did something similar to the dinner meetings, but they did not talk about city business. Instead, they talked about their families or entertainment or other topics, he said.
Mayor Payne acknowledged that the public has not attended the dinner meetings.
“We haven’t had anyone from the public come, but it is noticed,” he said. “And so those who follow the council pretty closely, I’m sure they know that we’ve been having dinners.”
