Prosecutor weighs in on public meetings law

Prosecutor Denis Tracy thinks county commissioners need to bone up on their knowledge of the state’s Open Public Meetings Act.

“The answer to this question is not complicated,” Tracy wrote in a letter to commissioners. “If two or more of you discuss anything having to do with the county other than the weather, it is a meeting – and all provisions of the Public Meetings Act apply.”

Tracy Aug. 10 sent the letter on public meeting law to commissioners entitled “What is a meeting? And other important questions”.

“A good lawyer does not stand by and watch his client violate the law if he can easily prevent it,” he wrote to the commissioners.

Allegations of illegal meetings were the centerpiece of a recall action launched against O’Neill and Partch last month by Roger Whitten of Oakesdale. Whitten’s recall attempt accused commissioners of four counts of violating the Open Public Meeting Act.

Three of Whitten’s accusations centered around discussions between O’Neill and Partch regarding the June 1 dismissal of former Finance Director Bev Divine.

“This whole thing started when two commissioners colluded outside of the public view to fire the finance director,” said Commissioner Michael Largent.

Partch said he and O’Neill did discuss the matter outside of scheduled meetings, but only because Largent was obstructing the process.

“We did have discussions on that outside of our regular meetings,” said Partch. “But that’s the way Michael wanted it to be.”

Whitten’s recall motion and the alleged violations were dismissed Aug. 2 by presiding Judge William Acey of Clarkston.

In handing down his decision, Judge Acey said commissioners can discuss county business outside of scheduled public meetings as long as they do not take action on those discussions.

“The judge said there was nothing wrong,” Partch said to Largent Monday.

Tracy in his letter disagreed with the judge’s statement.

“Perhaps the judge meant to say something other than what he said,” Tracy wrote in his letter. “In any event, I believe it is critical that my clients (you, the county commission) know that the judge was dead WRONG in that statement.”

Tracy closed his letter by stating the quotes from commissioners in local newspaper stories where commissioners have said they can discuss county matters outside the public view are incorrect.

“… whether those quotes have been correct or not, you all now know that you cannot have such conversations. Those conversations are clearly illegal,” he wrote.

Different interpretations of public meeting law were at the heart of a heated exchange between commissioners at Monday morning’s regular meeting.

Largent criticized his two colleagues for reading prepared statements about their decision on a request to lift the cap on CRP acres.

“I’m getting pretty tired of the reading of written prepared statements,” said Commissioner Michael Largent. “Why don’t you say what you mean?”

Commissioner Greg Partch said they prepared statements because they cannot discuss policy before the meeting.

Largent challenged that discussion, saying commissioners can discuss issues of county governance, but must do so in scheduled public meetings.

“You wanted it this way,” said Partch. “You were the one who accused us of making decisions in illegal meetings.”

The flap around public meetings has changed how commissioners have done their business.

“We are obviously very sensitive to that,” said Partch.

Since the accusations of secret meetings surfaced, commissioners have moved workshop sessions from their conference room to the main meeting chambers.

“That way it’s all recorded, and we have everything out in the open,” said Partch. “The downside is, it slows things down tremendously. It’s just hard to make decisions when you can only do it once a week.”

As an example, Partch pointed to the monthly report on the county’s budget.

Esther Wilson was the lone remaining member of the dismantled finance department until she was transferred to the information technology department last month.

Wilson had given the June and July financial reports that had been previously presented by Assistant Finance Director Sharron Cunningham before her June 3 resignation.

IT Director Chris Nelson asked Partch last week if he wanted Wilson to prepare this month’s report. He sent off e-mails to Largent and O’Neill, but they did not reply.

The Open Public Meetings Act allows commissioners to send each other e-mails, but does not allow for return correspondence.

Because he got no response, said Partch, he could not give Nelson an answer, and the monthly update scheduled for Monday was cancelled.

“There are tons of those every day decisions that we can’t make because we don’t have a meeting scheduled,” said Partch.