Members of the Shoreline City Council are in Olympia Wednesday and Thursday for the AWC City Action Days. They have special meetings arranged with 32nd District Legislators:
- Meeting with Representative Cindy Ryu, Wednesday, February 18, 2015 - 1:00 p.m. Legislative Building, Room 132D
- Meeting with Representative Ruth Kagi, Thursday, February 19, 2015 - 8:15 a.m., John L. O’Brien Building, Room 308
- Meeting with Senator Chase’s session aide Jennifer Minich, Thursday, February 19, 2015 – 10:00 a.m. Cherberg Building, Room 218
There are not details, but headlines being overlooked here. The Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) statute (RCW 42.30) requires the public be notified of these meetings. The City of Shoreline has done so in this case, though it takes 2 clicks from the home page on the City's website to get to their specials meeting notices. But when have they ever done this before? Sure, they publish notices of special meetings of the City Council all the time. But their attendance at a conference of the Association of Washington Cities (AWC), a non-government lobbyist organization? Meetings with individual legislators in Olympia? If meetings such as these require public notice under the OPMA, where was the notice for past meetings?
ReplyDeleteLast June, several members of the Shoreline City Council attended an AWC conference in Spokane. There was no public notice, no notice in the Shoreline Area News. A week later, Mayor Shari Winstead mentioned in a City Council meeting that "three or four" of them had attended. Actually, five council members, including the mayor, attended.
And why is this article tagged "Politics," when no other meeting announcements for the Shoreline City Council ever are? Why is it not tagged "City Council."
What is going on? What action does the Shoreline City Council intend to take as a council at these meetings that necessitates this departure from their normal practice? Or is the City's new City Attorney, Margaret King, advising the Council differently than her predecessor?