FINAL BILL REPORT

SSB 5297

                              C 42 L 89

BYSenate Committee on Governmental Operations (originally sponsored by Senators DeJarnatt and McCaslin)

Disallowing secret ballot voting at open public meetings.

Senate Committee on Governmental Operations

House Committe on State Government

SYNOPSIS AS ENACTED

BACKGROUND:

The Open Public Meetings Act requires that most business conducted in meetings of the governing bodies of many state and local government entities be conducted in public sessions.  Some matters may be discussed in closed executive sessions, but legislative actions -- including votes on ordinances, rules, orders or the like -- must be conducted in public.  Violation of the act can potentially subject a member of a governing body to a civil penalty.

Since the adoption of the Open Public Meetings Act in 1971, some governing bodies have occasionally voted by secret ballot, albeit in a public meeting.  Though the act does not expressly prohibit this practice, the Attorney General issued an opinion in 1971 to the effect that secret ballots violated the purpose of the act by defeating the accountability of individual members of a governing body to the public.  AGO 1971 No. 13. 

SUMMARY:

No governing body subject to the Open Public Meetings Act may vote in a public session by secret ballot.  A vote taken by secret ballot is void.

VOTES ON FINAL PASSAGE:

     Senate   46    0

     House 97  0

EFFECTIVE:July 23, 1989