Opinion - Business as usual or business as usual

Whitman County commissioners Pat O’Neill and Greg Partch have dodged the bullet.

They faced a recall action, in part for alleged violations of the Open Public Meetings Act.

At the recall hearing Monday Judge William Acey declared that there was not enough evidence to proceed with the recall.

The next step would have been collecting enough signatures to get the recall on the ballot. This, of course, will not happen.

The recall action is over. The commissioners are on the job, and the legal cloud which was hanging over their heads is gone. Let’s hope, however, it is not back to business as usual.

According to Judge Acey, Roger Whitten of Oakesdale, the plaintiff, did not present enough compelling first hand evidence to proceed with the recall.

The judge also basically suggested that the commissioners are allowed latitude in conducting public business as long as no action is taken.

The judge is wrong.

Under the Open Public Meetings Act all officials must make their actions and conduct their deliberations in the open so that the public may “retain control over the instruments they have created.”

The Open Public Meetings Act is clear and precise.

“Action” is not limited to actual voting. “Action” in this case means the transaction of business of a governing body and includes public testimony, deliberations, discussions, considerations, reviews, evaluations and final action.

The Open Public Meetings Act is not some frivolous thing created by a bunch of mamby pamby do-gooders. It is a law that is intended to protect the public from free-wheeling public servants who might forget why they are in office. It is a law to keep the workings of government as open and public as possible or, as we say now, transparent. This is a law to eliminate the proverbial closed door, smoke-filled rooms where decisions and deals are made in secret.

The law is not new. All public officials know of it, and it should be forefront in all their dealings. It is how governing bodies must conduct business. Adherence to the law should reflect business as usual.

Monday’s hearing killed Whitten’s recall action, but it did not kill the public’s need for open government in Whitman County. Nor did it endorse the actions of the commissioners.

The future will tell if the Open Public Meetings Act does, in fact, reflect business as usual in Whitman County.

Gordon Forgey

Publisher