Washington State

House of Representatives

Office of Program Research

BILL

ANALYSIS

State Government Committee

HB 1561

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

Brief Summary of Bill

Allows for discussions involving the security and vulnerability of information technology systems, plans, and assessments to be held during executive session under the Open Public Meetings Act.

Background:

The Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) requires that all meetings of the governing body of a public agency be open to the public and all persons shall be allowed to attend. For the purposes of the OPMA, a public agency is defined broadly and includes, but is not limited to, any state board, commission, department, education institution, agency, local government, and special purposes district. A governing body is defined as the multimember board, commission, committee, council, or other policy or rulemaking body of a public agency or any committee acting on behalf of the public agency.

A governing body may hold executive sessions out of the public eye for certain enumerated purposes. One of these purposes is to discuss with legal counsel litigation or potential litigation to which the body is likely to become a party, when knowledge of the discussion is likely to result in adverse legal or financial consequences.

Summary of Bill:

A governing body may consider the following information in executive session:

infrastructure and security of computer and telecommunications networks;
security and service recovery plans;
security risk assessments and security test results to the extent vulnerabilities are identified; and
other information that, if made public, may increase the risk to the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of agency security or to information technology infrastructure or assets.