Island Transit board members may have violated the Open Public Meetings Act during a recent executive session.

Island County Commissioner Jill Johnson, a member of the transit board, said the board members narrowed the applicants they are considering for the director’s position during a special closed-door meeting March 3.

The agency received 15 applications for the top job and, behind closed doors, narrowed the number of candidates to four. Johnson said the board members instructed the executive search firm to contact the four candidates and ask them if they wanted to continue on with a process that will be very public.

Yet it appears that narrowing candidates behind closed doors constitutes the board taking an “action” that isn’t allowed under the Open Public Meetings Act. A government body is allowed to go into executive session to evaluate the qualifications for someone as a public employee, but nothing more.

Case law, specifically Miller v. City of Tacoma, shows that any straw polls or elimination of candidates isn’t allowed.

Nancy Krier, the open government ombudsman for the state Attorney General’s Office, pointed to an article by the Municipal Research Center and the bar association’s “deskbook” on public disclosure and public meetings.

The Municipal Research article notes that while the RCW expressly mandates that “final action hiring” of an applicant for employment must be taken in open session, “this does not mean that the governing body may take preliminary votes that eliminate candidates from consideration.”

While the Miller case involves appointment of an elected official, the municipal research article states that the same reasoning extends to appointed positions.

Johnson, however, said she doesn’t believe the board violated the law because they asked the head-hunting firm to possibly do some final pruning of the four candidates by checking that they want to go through a public interviewing process, as well as some more in-depth checking of their pasts.

That means, she reasoned, that the consultants were narrowing the applicant pool, not the board.

Oak Harbor Councilman Rick Almberg, chairman of the Island Transit board, was out of town and did not attend the executive session.

Johnson said the board made the decision to discuss the candidates in private and narrow the list because it could potentially hurt a candidate’s career if it became public that they applied for the job.

Once the consultant gets the candidates’ approval, the board will release their names to the public, she said.

Finalists include two people with transit experience — one from out of state and one from the Pacific Northwest.

The other two, she said, have “proven leadership skills” that make them strong candidates.

All four were “highly recommended” by the search firm, she added, but the board members also want to have public input in the process of picking the director.

The plan, Johnson said, is for the finalists to have a reception with management staff followed by a reception with all employees followed by a reception with the public.

“The point is to get community feedback,” she said. “It gives the board the chance to follow up on any concerns the public may raise about a person.”

The next day the board will interview the candidates in public.

The dates for the meetings haven’t been set.

The new director will earn in the neighborhood of $120,000.

Ken Graska, the interim director, alerted the board last year that he wasn’t interested in taking the position permanently.