What happens when government officials violate the state’s Open Public Meetings Act?

On Whidbey Island, too often the answer is “nothing at all.”

Under state law, each public official should be personally fined $100 for each violation. The fine is the same as when the legislation was first passed in 1971. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson has proposed much-needed legislation this session to increase the penalty to $500 for a first offense and adding a new penalty of $1,000 for a repeat violation.

The $500 fine, Ferguson said in a press release, would bring the fine in line with inflation since the law was enacted.

That’s a great step and acknowledges the importance of open government. After all, the intent of the Open Public Meetings Act was to ensure that the public has access to meetings of city councils, school boards, fire district boards, state agencies and other public boards, and that those boards’ deliberations and actions are open to the public, a vital step in our democracy and for responsive government.

Besides advocating for increases in the fines, the attorney general should put some more “skin in the game” and assign some of his staff to actively go after violators.

Ferguson has shown that he takes open government seriously. He requested legislation, ultimately signed into law, requiring public officials be trained in the provisions of the meetings and records acts. About 5,200 have completed the office’s in-person training, and its online training videos have been watched 20,000 times.

The mandatory training is important because it removes the ability for a public official to claim ignorance, that he or she didn’t “knowingly” attend a meeting that should have been open to the public.

The Whidbey News-Times regularly points out when boards and councils illegally making decisions in secret. We often turn to state Attorney General’s Open Government Ombudsman, Washington Coalition for Open Government and a state expert in sunshine laws to explain how the law was broken.

In October, for example, the experts said the Island County commissioners violated — or at least skirted — the law when they made a decision behind closed doors to fire the planning director and split the department in two.

Commissioner Helen Price Johnson’s response was to deny that violations occurred.

The Whidbey General Hospital board still hasn’t explained how, or when, it made a decision to fund the legal defense of an administrator accused of a crime.

In general, officials rarely acknowledge that the law was violated or make promises to do better. Perhaps the last time that happened was in 2012 when Bill Hawkins, then city attorney for Oak Harbor, took responsibility when the council violated the law by whittling down the candidates for a council seat appointment behind closed doors. He recommended that the council re-do the process, which it did.

Perhaps the possibility of a stiff fine will encourage more public officials to also take the law seriously.

Oak Harbor City Council is currently in the process of appointing a new member to fill Mayor Bob Severns’ former seat. So far, the council has done everything right and we expect that will continue with open discussion and decision making at Tuesday’s meeting.