When it comes to public meetings, letter of law is important

It seems counterintuitive.

A public meeting becomes so rowdy that the governing board triggers a section of state law allowing it to move the location and even vote without admitting the public.

But before members do that, they must announce where they are going and take a public vote on the new location, opening the opportunity for the next meeting to be disrupted as well.

Still, that’s what the state’s open public meetings law requires, and that’s what the Puyallup School Board didn’t do last week.

At its May 9 meeting, the board’s agenda contained the acceptance of the resignation of John Rogers High School Principal Scott Brittain.

As many as 500 residents, including many high school students and parents, showed up at Ballou Junior High where many testified against accepting Brittain’s resignation. Many others held signs and chanted slogans.

It was both passionate and rowdy. And when the time came to vote, many started shouting and chanting.

Anticipating such disruptions, board president Cindy Poysnick had a prepared script to inform those in attendance that the meeting was being adjourned and would reconvene in another location.

Relocating a public meeting is allowed under state meetings law, a statute that was written in the early 1970’s when contentious meetings were common. As per the law, reporters covering the event were told of the new location and were admitted.

But the law requires that the board “adjourn the meeting and reconvene at another location selected by majority vote of the members.” I read that to require not just a majority vote on adjournment, but a majority vote on the selection of the new location.

You could even read another section of the law to require the board to approve an order or notice of adjournment and immediately post that order “on or near the door” of the place where the regular meeting was held.

I asked Tim Ford, the open government ombudsman for the state attorney general. Ford said he had not heard of another instance when a meeting was adjourned and reconvened elsewhere.

The law implies that those in attendance have a duty to be civil and not disrupt proceedings. Usually, however, disruptive people are removed and business continues.

In last week’s case, however, it would have been difficult to separate disrupters from others, so relocation was probably the only path available. But Ford agreed the location needed to have been announced and voted on.

“They need to make that location public,” he said.

That script prepared for Poysnick seems to agree. It appears to have called on her to fill in an actual location at two spots where the terms “new location” and “name of location” were in brackets.

Instead, she said “new location” in the first instance and her voice was drowned out by the audience in the second reference, but it doesn’t appear she gave the location.

If the second meeting wasn’t properly convened, all actions taken are null and void. Ford said he would suggest the board redo any votes conducted in the second meeting.

While it might sound silly to tell a disruptive audience where a meeting is being reconvened, it is required and it is important. Because even if those in attendance weren’t to be allowed inside, they had the right to assemble outside.

Cliff Foster, the district’s attorney, said the board did its best to follow the statute in very difficult and chaotic circumstances.

He said the purpose of the law was followed – that the board had the authority to move the meeting but that the public’s right to know was preserved by admission of TV and newspaper reporters.

“The district takes its obligations under the open public meetings act seriously and the board did all it could to follow the statute,” Foster said.

“At the end of the day, the net result for public participation is the same.”

Foster is right about the end result. But I still think the board needs to vote again to accept Brittain’s resignation.

Peter Callaghan: 253-597-8657 peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/politics