Published: Sunday, January 24, 2010
Everett City Council president promises more openness
EVERETT — Newly elected council president Paul Roberts said he’s moving forward as quickly as possible to open closed-door committee meetings to the public.
For months, Roberts said, he’s recognized the need for more openness in operations of city council committees — where council members hash out weighty issues before they head into public sessions.
Roberts said Friday that he’s begun talks with city staff about publishing agendas and other committee meeting information on the city’s Web site.
He also asked councilmen Drew Nielsen and Shannon Affholter to join him in an ad hoc committee to address the city council’s practices. The work will include a review of council committees. Part of that discussion also will focus on the best ways to work with city staff.
Considerable logistics are involved, Roberts said, and it may take some time to work out all the details, including finding sufficient public spaces to host meetings.
Still, “I want to make sure people realize I’m ready to move forward,” he said.
Some in City Hall have been hearing a lot lately from people angry about access to meetings involving council members. Council members touched off the flap when they abruptly decided earlier this month to move meetings to mornings — without public notice.
Roberts said he has been wanting to address access to council committee meetings for months, but was spurred into action when questions about the council’s practices became public.
Councilman Affholter said there’s a fine line between an official committee, which can take action on behalf of a government, and one that meets without a quorum of council members and legally can only advise the group. He plans to explore how other cities handle the issue.
“The process we’re going through is a healthy process,” Affholter said.
Right now, seven City Council committees meet a dozen times every month without public notice. It’s a longtime practice, but one the state attorney general’s office said could be illegal, depending on whether the committees act on behalf the council by making “actual or defacto” decisions.
If they are, those committee meetings would fall under the state’s Open Public Meetings Act, which mandates opportunities for public access with few exceptions, said Tim Ford, an assistant state attorney general who is the state’s open government ombudsman.
A majority of the council doesn’t have to be present at a committee meeting for public access to be mandated by state law, Ford said.
It’s hard to know if there are problems in Everett since the committees have been meeting in out-of-the-way conference rooms and don’t always keep minutes.
The lawyer the city is paying for legal advice on compliance with state open meetings laws said Friday there is no reason for concern. Assistant city attorney Ramsey Ramerman said it’s not possible for the council committees to be illegal because they have no authority to act on the council’s behalf.
He said other communities use similar practices.
“I think they are legally complying with the technical requirements of the law,” he said.
He also said he welcomed a more transparent process, even though the changes weren’t technically required.
Ramerman spent part of the week using his personal time to teach an open records seminar for the Washington Counties Risk Pool.
City spokeswoman Kate Reardon said that a story in The Herald about council committees prompted phone calls to her from officials at other area cities who also reported similar practices to Everett. She declined to say who called her and from which cities.
The city of Arlington stopped using committee meetings in 2005 because of concern the process wasn’t open and accessible, said Kristin Banfield, assistant city administrator.
There was a feeling among city leaders that the council was “doing business in a vacuum.”
“We felt they were not meeting the spirit of the open meetings act,” she said.
The Arlington council now schedules public workshops twice a month in addition to council meetings. Banfield said the change lets people listen to more complex decisions about things such as work on the city’s new sewage treatment plant. The workshops also are time savers for staff and elected leaders when compared to the hours spent preparing for and attending multiple committee meetings, Banfield said.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com
For months, Roberts said, he’s recognized the need for more openness in operations of city council committees — where council members hash out weighty issues before they head into public sessions.
Roberts said Friday that he’s begun talks with city staff about publishing agendas and other committee meeting information on the city’s Web site.
He also asked councilmen Drew Nielsen and Shannon Affholter to join him in an ad hoc committee to address the city council’s practices. The work will include a review of council committees. Part of that discussion also will focus on the best ways to work with city staff.
Considerable logistics are involved, Roberts said, and it may take some time to work out all the details, including finding sufficient public spaces to host meetings.
Still, “I want to make sure people realize I’m ready to move forward,” he said.
Some in City Hall have been hearing a lot lately from people angry about access to meetings involving council members. Council members touched off the flap when they abruptly decided earlier this month to move meetings to mornings — without public notice.
Roberts said he has been wanting to address access to council committee meetings for months, but was spurred into action when questions about the council’s practices became public.
Councilman Affholter said there’s a fine line between an official committee, which can take action on behalf of a government, and one that meets without a quorum of council members and legally can only advise the group. He plans to explore how other cities handle the issue.
“The process we’re going through is a healthy process,” Affholter said.
Right now, seven City Council committees meet a dozen times every month without public notice. It’s a longtime practice, but one the state attorney general’s office said could be illegal, depending on whether the committees act on behalf the council by making “actual or defacto” decisions.
If they are, those committee meetings would fall under the state’s Open Public Meetings Act, which mandates opportunities for public access with few exceptions, said Tim Ford, an assistant state attorney general who is the state’s open government ombudsman.
A majority of the council doesn’t have to be present at a committee meeting for public access to be mandated by state law, Ford said.
It’s hard to know if there are problems in Everett since the committees have been meeting in out-of-the-way conference rooms and don’t always keep minutes.
The lawyer the city is paying for legal advice on compliance with state open meetings laws said Friday there is no reason for concern. Assistant city attorney Ramsey Ramerman said it’s not possible for the council committees to be illegal because they have no authority to act on the council’s behalf.
He said other communities use similar practices.
“I think they are legally complying with the technical requirements of the law,” he said.
He also said he welcomed a more transparent process, even though the changes weren’t technically required.
Ramerman spent part of the week using his personal time to teach an open records seminar for the Washington Counties Risk Pool.
City spokeswoman Kate Reardon said that a story in The Herald about council committees prompted phone calls to her from officials at other area cities who also reported similar practices to Everett. She declined to say who called her and from which cities.
The city of Arlington stopped using committee meetings in 2005 because of concern the process wasn’t open and accessible, said Kristin Banfield, assistant city administrator.
There was a feeling among city leaders that the council was “doing business in a vacuum.”
“We felt they were not meeting the spirit of the open meetings act,” she said.
The Arlington council now schedules public workshops twice a month in addition to council meetings. Banfield said the change lets people listen to more complex decisions about things such as work on the city’s new sewage treatment plant. The workshops also are time savers for staff and elected leaders when compared to the hours spent preparing for and attending multiple committee meetings, Banfield said.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com
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