Open government meetings have been the law in Oregon for 50 years - time for reform – Oregon Capital Chronicle - Oregon Capital Chronicle
Citizens deserve a far easier path to complain when public agencies violate the state public meetings law in ways that obscure government business
Efforts to toughen Oregon’s public records or public meetings laws often bring howls from government agencies and associations of governments.
That’s happened again for what seems one of the most sensible reforms in half a century.
A plan before the Oregon Legislature would make it harder for government agencies to do business through secret meetings.
For the first time, citizens would have someone to step in and fight for their right to open government meetings.
House Bill 4140 would give the Oregon Government Ethics Commission the power and resources to examine those school boards, city councils and other public bodies that violate the open meetings law.
That shouldn’t be a startling proposal.
In 1973, Oregon created the law that established that those in power who decide on public business should act in the open, in front of citizens.
Most public officials are attentive, sometimes maybe even obsessive, about obeying that law. They get it. They know any hint they are trying to hide the public business will erode trust. And such erosion makes it harder for school districts, county commissions and rural fire districts to get what they reasonably need.
But as with any law, there are those who want to color outside the lines, if not obliterate them.
One clear example happened in Malheur County recently, a place where I run a weekly newspaper.
Records showed that a county-created board overseeing the spending of $29 million was completely shutting out the public. Board members conducted some of their meetings by personal email, complete with the meeting trappings of motions and seconds. Last fall, they used this private process to hand out a $5 million contract.
They didn’t feel obliged to explain themselves when caught, and neither did their chief staff person who sits on the board as well – Greg Smith. He is a state legislator from Heppner and has been in office for 20 years. He should know the law and had a prime duty to see the law was obeyed.
But Smith, who profits from his personal business with government agencies, has never responded to questions about this secrecy.
Dan Joyce, the Malheur County judge who chairs the county commission, just shrugged when asked if meeting by private email was legal. He’s been in office for 18 years. Yet he can’t answer whether a public board he helped appoint can meet by email.
He can shrug, it seems, because he likely knows that the law has no real teeth to require compliance with the Oregon meetings law. Any citizen who wants to stop such secret sessions has but one recourse – suing in state court. That takes a lawyer. That takes time. It’s not a process the average taxpayer is going to undertake.
The pending legislation would tilt the process back in favor of citizens. Finally, they would have a place to go to complain about a possible law violation. They would have an agency with the legal muscle to investigate – and to punish as warranted.
Some public officials get the need. They support the legislation.
The Coalition of Oregon School Administrators, for instance, said in written testimony that it would be “good public policy” to have the ethics commission investigate open meetings violations.
The law reform would be “a clear reminder to all locally elected officials and employees entrusted with the responsibility to govern that they have a tremendous obligation and responsibility to do their work in a clear and transparent manner,” the statement said.
But the reform has few fans among other government entities.
The Special Districts Association of Oregon represents everything from cemetery boards to parks districts. Its lobbyist, Hasina Wittenberg, warned legislators that requiring those serving on such boards to get trained in the Open Meetings Law “will increase the difficulty districts have in attracting volunteers to serve.”
It’s hard to imagine someone giving up service on a community board because they are required to learn about the laws they must work under. Wittenberg didn’t respond to a message seeking the basis for her representation.
The Association of Oregon Counties was a “no” on this reform as well. It raised the specter that staffing would have to escalate dramatically for the ethics commission to investigate open meetings violations. And the association doesn’t like “the amount of discretion” proposed for the ethics commission to investigate.
Genoa Ingram of the Oregon Fire District Directors Association suggested in her testimony there was no need for the legislation. She told legislators that the state Justice Department, after all, already enforces the Open Meetings Law.
That’s not true.
Contacted about that, Ingram said that “enforce” was probably too strong a description, but that her association’s real objection was one of cost. A fee would be assessed on government agencies to pay for enforcing the law, and where would that money come from, she asked.
Such arguments get legislators’ attention because governments and their agents such as Ingram have a distinct edge over ordinary citizens. They are paid to speak up while citizens rely on do-it-yourself advocacy. What’s more, government agencies and their associations pay lobbyists – often with public money – to defend government interests.
They readily create the impression they are being picked on by Salem. Too often, though, their arguments against reform serve them more than the citizens they are supposed to represent.
This time, citizens deserve to have legislators tend to their interests first and government second. Putting teeth into the Open Meetings Law has waited a half century.
Time has come to put the bite on public officials who ignore, without penalty, the public’s legal and rightful access to their work and their decisions.
source: https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2022/02/15/open-government-meetings-have-been-the-law-in-oregon-for-50-years-time-for-reform/
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