The governing board of Community Transit decided to forgo the status quo Thursday, Oct. 9 and voted unanimously to open the board’s committee meetings to the public.
In the past, CT officials have told the public that the committee meetings were closed.
No longer.
Along with opening committee meetings, the bus agency’s board of directors, made up of elected officials from across Snohomish County, told staff to post a schedule of the meetings on the Community Transit Web site.
Eventually, agendas for committee meetings will be posted online as well.
Before the vote Oct. 9, there was division on the board on whether the committee meetings were actually closed to the public. Some board members said they thought the meetings were already open, but others recalled specific times they had been told by agency officials that the meetings were closed.
The move to open committee meetings was led by Lynnwood City Council member Lisa Utter and Mountlake Terrace Mayor Pat Cordova.
Cordova told fellow board members that taxpayers have the right to sit in and listen at committee meetings.
“I think the door should always be open,” she said.
When discussion turned to posting committee meeting agendas on the CT Web site, Community Transit CEO Joyce Olson lobbied against the proposal. She said it would be too costly to have the agendas posted every week because an outside consultant maintains the Web site.
Board members, however, said their individual cities have no problem putting agendas on their municipal Web sites.
Lake Stevens Mayor Lynn Walty said it doesn’t take his clerk much time to put an agenda on the Web site.
“Ours are published. And it takes about 15 minutes,” Walty said.
Board members decided to give Community Transit staff until Jan. 2 to begin posting committee agendas online.
Agendas will also be made available to the public through e-mails.
Board members began reviewing access to Community Transit’s committee meetings after the city of Everett was engulfed in controversy over keeping its City Council committee meetings closed.
Earlier this year, Everett was criticized for its closed council committee meetings during a dispute over funding for Salty Sea Days. The City Council in August unanimously voted to open committee meetings to the public. Brian Kelly is a reporter for the Herald in Everett.
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