We are asking Gov. Tina Kotek to veto HB 4177, an ill-advised measure approved by the Oregon Legislature that undermines Oregon’s long-revered Public Meetings Law. A work group that proposed HB 4177 excluded media organizations that were deeply embedded in the creation of our Public Meetings Law in 1973 and in subsequent amendments. Coming late to that table, representatives of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association (ONPA) were shocked to find this warning from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission (OGEC):
“This exception would allow governing body members to meet in private and/or communicate privately with each other, outside of any public meeting, in order to gather information. Much of the information gathering that normally occurs in public meetings (work sessions or executive sessions) could instead be done privately … with no meeting notice, no minutes or recordings, and no news media observers.”
Here are additional notes of caution from OGEC, obtained through a public records request:
“It should be noted at the outset that whenever a quorum of a governing body gathers together, whether in public or private, that quorum has the power to exercise government authority and bind the government to any decision. Even if that decision occurs in private and in violation of the Public Meetings Law, the action still binds the government.
“It (HB 4177) is effectively rewriting the Public Meetings Law in ways that create much more ambiguity and inhibit enforcement, and doing so in a short session without any public involvement.”
HB 4177 contains significant legal and political complications, and there is no emergency needing immediate legislative action without adequate attention to those problems.
Some portray HB 4177 as a measure simply to clarify issues related to “serial communications,” which are “daisy-chain” discussions among members of a governing body allowing deliberation without a meeting. Instead, as testified by citizens, ONPA and OGEC, HB 4177 actually expands permissions for serial communications while allowing full-quorum gatherings of governing bodies with “no meeting notice, no minutes or recordings, and no news media observers.”
And, of course, no citizen observers.
Enactment of HB 4177 would result in loss of government transparency, and new confusion for OGEC in its role of enforcing the Public Meetings Law.
Ironically, it required a public records request to uncover the depth of public harm that would be imposed by enactment of HB 4177. Oregon’s two joined laws — Public Records and Public Meetings — provide the core rights of Oregon citizens to open government.
The Public Meetings Law in ORS 192.620 states state policy unchanged since 1973: “The Oregon form of government requires an informed public aware of the deliberations and decisions of governing bodies and the information upon which such decisions were made. It is the intent of ORS 192.610 to 192.690 that decisions of governing bodies be arrived at openly.”
HB 4177 is a violation of that 53-year-old open government policy.
We believe, in passing HB 4177 during a short session, that the Oregon Legislature did not have full access to legal analysis about its consequences. This is precisely the time — particularly by a governor who has championed open government through decades of Oregon public service — for a balancing veto.
Gov. Kotek, we offer our full support on behalf of the Oregon public for your consideration of a veto on HB 4177.
Signed by Columbia Gorge News, Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, and the following publications:
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