EVERETT — What can and can’t be discussed by elected officials in meetings closed to the public fueled much of the controversy on the Everett School Board last year.
Tensions rose so high that school board member Jessica Olson was censured twice by fellow board members. Olson said she was fighting for more openness and transparency.
And a well-publicized grabbing and shoving match broke out between Olson and two board members over how much of Superintendent Gary Cohn’s annual review could be discussed behind closed doors. Olson would not turn off a video recorder she was using to document portions she thought should be discussed in public.
In response, a meeting is scheduled for Thursday in Mill Creek to help both the public and school board members better understand the state’s open public meeting law and the steps involved in getting records from government agencies.
The school board asked the League of Women Voters of Snohomish County to organize the event. The nonprofit chose three panelists to speak at the meeting: Tim Ford, ombudsman for the Open Public Meetings Act in the state attorney general’s office and Ramsey Ramerman, an assistant city attorney in Everett who has led training sessions throughout the state on the open meetings and public records disclosure laws. The third panelist will be a representative from the Washington State School Directors Association.
The panelists will discuss what the state’s open public meetings act requires and what restrictions govern the topics public agencies can discuss in meetings closed to the public, said Michelle Valentine, president of the League of Women Voters of Snohomish County.
Panelists also will discuss what techniques board members can use when there is disagreement among its members. “We want civil discussion, disagreement, but civil,” Valentine said.
The meeting will be recorded for later broadcast on Everett radio station KSER. Plans are in the works for a copy to be posted on the school district’s website, she said.
Panelists will discuss these topics for about 30 minutes and then open the meeting to questions from the public.
The idea for the meeting was first suggested in September when the school board was considering Olson’s second censure. It came from Reid Shockey, a private planner who works in Everett.
In November, Ed Petersen, school board president, promised to schedule the meeting early this year.
Jeff Russell, who took over as school board president last month, said, “I think it will be a great opportunity.”
“Members of the public are really interested in this topic,” he sad. “It’s an opportunity to learn and to have their questions answered and their concerns aired.”
School board members will be on hand to listen and observe, he said.
Olson said she welcomed the meeting. “I think the board would have to be blind and deaf not to know that the public is interested in this and that there’s increasing pressure to be more open,” she said.
Olson said she was concerned that no one from the Washington Coalition for Open Government was selected to be a panelist at Thursday’s meeting, since the purpose of the nonprofit is to promote transparency in government agencies.
Ramerman, one of the panelists, said he has led open government training sessions for government employees throughout the state and has participated in several of forums sponsored by the Washington Coalition for Open Government.
“My philosophy on open government is that it’s a tool for government to help improve its own functioning by creating public trust,” he said. “You have to focus on public perception of openness, not just following the letter of the law.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com
Event Thursday
A briefing on the state’s open public meetings and public records laws, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Snohomish County, is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Heatherwood Middle School, 1419 Trillium Blvd. in Mill Creek.
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