If a Tree Falls In a Wood, And the Committee Can't Remember It ...

In several previous posts, the Trojan Heron has covered CAPR's lawsuit about the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA). This lawsuit has to do with the alleged secret meetings of the former CAO Implementation Committee, which was comprised of County staff (including a Deputy Prosecutor) and three former Council people. The committee was formed to help shuffle the CAOs along, which are the subject of a separate lawsuit involving the County, the Friends, and the Common Sense Alliance.

Regarding the OPMA and the CAPR lawsuit ... the closed meetings of the CAO Implementation Committee took place regularly for months. CAPR's position is that these meetings should have been open to the public, according to the OPMA, because the committee took action on behalf of the Council in reviewing and discarding CAO options ... and because the committee involved a negative quorum of Council members (three members being sufficient to vote down a proposal).

The County alleges that no actions were taken in these meetings ... nothing happened. There were hundreds of hours of meetings, and nothing substantive occurred. They invited in consultants and staff, but only discussed ministerial functions such as scheduling. There are no meeting minutes, only some hand scribbled notes in addition to emails between staff and committee members. When deposed about the content of the meetings, participants could not recall what they discussed. 

• Lovel Pratt was deposed on January 3, 2013, and she expressed 67 denials of knowledge (63 "I don't recall", 4 "I don't know")
• Richard Fralick was deposed on January 3, 2013, and he expressed 22 denials (21 "I don't recall", 1 "I don't know")
• Patty Miller was deposed on January 4, 2013, and she expressed 63 denials (51 "I don't recall", 12 "I don't know")
• Shireene Hale was deposed on January 17, 2013, and she expressed 100 denials (52 "I don't recall", 31 "I don't know", 17 "I just don't have a specific recollection")

Despite all this "nothing" going on, in a January 2013 Council meeting, the Council spent time in one of their non-secret meetings congratulating themselves on the work they got done in committees and subcommittees. Councilman Stephens even referred to the CAOs directly. Pratt said that she could hardly remember any Council votes where subcommittees didn't get their way.

Yesterday, this case finally reached the Washington Supreme Court. Oral arguments were heard. A ruling is still several weeks away. The justices were very engaged and asked good questions yesterday. Several seemed skeptical that the County could spend so much time in secret doing nothing.

They aren't the only ones.

Winter Council Committee Conversation Kudos

Sometimes it seems like Trojan Heron compliments about County government are as rare as hen's teeth, but we'd like to pay a rare compliment to the Winter Council for their efforts yesterday. Mind you, the Trojan Heron agrees with the dismay our commenters have expressed regarding the Community Conversations; however, yesterday the Winter Council had a conversation/workshop with its Citizen Advisory Committees, and we applaud that conversation. It's about time that conversation took place. More please.

For several hours, the Council discussed Committee alignment with Council goals, communications, rules, and vacancies/term limits/appointments. Patty Miller prepared a summary of all those parts of the County Code that pertain to Committees (bravo), and ideas were discussed for liaising with the Council. Committee workplans were seized upon as one new (old) way to improve coordination between the Council and the committees. It's a new (old) way since workplans are actually required by the County Code already, as is annual training for Committee members. We just haven't been following our own legal requirements for our Committees. There were many questions, and as sorely needed as the workshop was, it served to illustrate how much further we have to go to get this place under control.

But it was a step in the right direction. We need many more.

Next post we'll deliver on our promise to comment on the Thomas Paine reference in the Lisa Byers video.