SENATE BILL REPORT

SB 5297

BYSenators DeJarnatt and McCaslin

Disallowing secret ballot voting at open public meetings.

Senate Committee on Governmental Operations

Senate Hearing Date(s):February 8, 1989

Majority Report:  That Substitute Senate Bill No. 5297 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass.

      Signed by Senators McCaslin, Chairman; Thorsness, Vice Chairman; DeJarnatt, Sutherland.

Senate Staff:Sam Thompson (786-7754); Eugene Green (786-7405)

                  February 8, 1989

AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS, FEBRUARY 8, 1989

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.  Some matters may be discussed in executive session, but legislative actions -- 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 conducted votes on such matters 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 by secret ballot on any ordinance, resolution, rule, regulation, order, or directive.  A vote taken by secret ballot is void.

EFFECT OF PROPOSED SUBSTITUTE:

Specific references to matters that may not be voted upon by secret ballot are deleted.

Appropriation:    none

Revenue:    none

Fiscal Note:      none requested

Senate Committee - Testified: Paul Conrad, Miles Turnbull, Allied Daily Newspapers (pro); Tom Koenninger, editor of the Vancouver Columbian (pro); Geoff Gibbs, Washington State Association of Broadcasters (pro)