Other LanguagesIt is not clearly a violation of the Washington Open Public Meetings Act for the board of regents of a state university to consider, and by duly adopted motion fix, the salary of its president in an executive session; the legislature, however, may amend the law in various ways to deal with the matter.
1. The Open Public Meetings Act and public records provisions of the Public Disclosure Act apply to state agencies. An organization or entity is a state agency for these purposes if it is the functional equivalent of a state agency. 2. A four-part analysis is used to determine if an organization or entity is the functional equivalent of a state agency: (1) whether the organization performs a governmental function; (2) the level of government funding; (3) the extent of government involvement or regulation; and (4) whether the organization was created by the government. 3. The Small Business Export Finance Assistance Center is not the functional equivalent of a state agency under this four-part analysis. Therefore, the Center is not subject to the Open Public Meetings Act or the public records provisions of the Public Disclosure Act.
The presence of a quorum of the members of a city or county council at a meeting not called by the council does not, in itself, make the meeting a “public meeting” for purposes of the Open Public Meetings Act (RCW 42.30); the Open Public Meetings Act would apply if the council members took any “action” (as defined in RCW 42.30) at the meeting, such as voting, deliberating together, or using the meeting as a source of public testimony for council action.
The Open Public Meetings Act requires that notice be properly given of a meeting of the governing body. This requirement is not satisfied by notice given for a meeting of a standing committee of a city council as a governing body, where a quorum of members of the city council attend the meeting and take action as defined in the act, such that a meeting of the city council as a governing body takes place.
1. A county does not have authority to ban video or sound recording of a meeting required to be open to the public by the Open Public Meetings Act (RCW 42.30); the county could regulate recording only to the extent necessary to preserve order at the meeting and facilitate public attendance. 2. A county has authority to ban video or sound recording of any lawful executive session of a public meeting. 3. If a meeting is not an “open public meeting” as defined in RCW 42.30, but is required to be an open meeting by some other statute, the extent of the county's authority to restrict recording of such a meeting would depend on the language and the intent of the controlling statute. 4. If a county officer conducts a “private meeting” as may be defined in law, the county has authority to restrict or prohibit the recording of such meetings.
1. RCW 54.12.080(4) provides that any public utility district providing group insurance for its employees may provide its commissioners with the same insurance coverage. In this circumstance, public utility district commissioners may receive insurance as part of their compensation. 2. Article 2, section 25 (amend. 35) of the Washington Constitution provides that the compensation of a public officer shall not be increased during his or her term of office. Article 30, section 1 of the Washington Constitution permits mid-term compensation increases only for public officers who do not fix their own compensation. Accordingly, public utility districts may decide to purchase life insurance policies for their commissioners, but may not actually provide the policies until the next terms of the respective commissioners' offices begin.
The Open Public Meetings Act (chapter 42.30 RCW) is applicable to the council on hearing aids which is provided for by RCW 18.35.150.