Executive sessions: When is it OK for officials to go behind closed doors?

The Aug. 23 fracas during a closed-door meeting of the Everett School Board cast a bright light on the what state law allows during executive sessions. Pushing, shoving and fighting among public officials? Nope. Private discussions about an employee's job performance, real estate transactions or national security? Absolutely. When is it OK for a school board, a city council or leaders of other public agencies to go behind closed doors, and what business may they do there?

Here's the Washington Open Public Meeting Act's legislative declaration:

"All meetings of the governing body of a public agency shall be open and public and all persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting of the governing body of a public agency, except as otherwise provided in this chapter."

--Revised Code of Washington, Chapter 42.30

There are 14 exemptions to this rule, and at least one must be in play for public officials to meet behind closed doors.

We've annotated some of them to show how the Everett School Board has invoked the executive sessions section of the act to take business behind closed doors. The exemptions section is reproduced in the window below these examples, in its entirety.

We also did some research into the use of cameras and other recording devices in executive session, and you'll find that at the bottom of this story.

About that camera ...

There is no state law that prohibits recording or videotaping an executive session, although many government attorneys discourage the practice.

A government's decision to take business behind closed doors doesn't mean it needs to stay there, however.

Toby Nixon, president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, said the debate in Everett highlights the confusion over executive sessions around the state.

"There's nothing in the Open Public Meetings Act that says simply because something is discussed in executive session that it's deemed confidential," Nixon said.

Carol Andrews asked for help from the state's open government ombudsman, Tim Ford, to sort out the issues. State law is silent on whether a board member may record executive sessions, he said. He also noted that a school board could adopt a policy to prohibit the practice. (You can download a PDF of the email exchange at the top of this story, under Related Items.)

A majority of the Everett School Board recently approved such a policy.