Commissioners: It’s back to the conference table

After months of discussion at their official bench, Whitman County commissioners decided Monday to return to weekly roundtable workshop sessions in their conference room.

In July, amid accusations they were meeting outside the bounds of the state’s Open Public Meetings Act, commissioners moved discussions of county business from the conference room to their official meeting room.

In the former conference table workshop sessions, commissioners discussed issues of county governance. Those discussions led to official action on the issues during officially scheduled meetings.

Commissioner Michael Largent proposed the return to the conference table meetings.

“As long as we make sure we don’t break the damn law, I’m okay with going back in there,” said Commissioner Pat O’Neill.

Commissioners made the move to their bench after citizen Roger Whitten accused Commissioners O’Neill and Greg Partch of breaking the public meeting law in his petition to have them recalled.

Largent, though, said he saw no connection between the location of the meeting and the state’s meeting law.

“I never quite understood the change to begin with,” he said. “There was no connection to the OPMA that I could discover.”

Part of Whitten’s case, which was dismissed by the court, rested on Largent’s assertion that O’Neill and Partch had made decisions about dismantling the finance department outside of official meetings.

All three agreed the conference table discussions had been helpful on previous issues and decided to bring them back in their next meeting cycle, Oct. 18 through Oct. 31.

The workshop sessions will be listed on the official two week agenda.