The Washington State Senate on Tuesday in Olympia approved with a 49-0 vote Attorney General Bob Ferguson\u2019s agency-request bill to increase transparency in government by enhancing penalties for violations of Washington\u2019s Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The OPMA requires that all meetings of multimember governing bodies of local and state public agencies be open and accessible to the public.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Senate Bill 6171 would increase the penalties for knowingly violating the act\u2019s requirements from $100 to $500, roughly in line with inflation since the law was enacted in 1971. The bill also adds an increased penalty of $1,000 for repeat knowing violations.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis common-sense bill promotes the open and honest government Washingtonians demand and deserve,\u201d said Ferguson in a media release. \u201cWhen the law requires an open meeting yet officials knowingly close the door on the public, they must be held accountable with meaningful penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cTo hold government accountable, we need to know what\u2019s going on,\u201d said bill prime sponsor Sen. Pam Roach, R-Sumner. \u201cNo more secret meetings. Those officials who knowingly and repeatedly violate our open meeting laws should face a penalty painful enough to discourage them from ever doing so again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
State Sen. Maralyn Chase, D-Edmonds, was instrumental in ensuring the bill was pulled from the Rules Committee and brought to the Senate floor for a vote.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cOur laws are no good without the teeth to change bad behaviors, and the size of the penalties had grown insignificant over time,\u201d said Chase. \u201cThis updates the penalties to a level that should encourage compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The companion legislation, House Bill 2353, sponsored by Rep. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia, was approved by the House State Government Committee and is currently before that chamber\u2019s Rules Committee.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Washington State Senate on Tuesday in Olympia approved with a 49-0 vote Attorney General Bob Ferguson\u2019s agency-request bill to increase transparency in government by enhancing penalties for violations of Washington\u2019s Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":6075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-6074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6074"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}