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Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Editorial: Open Meetings Law Routinely Violated

"A few bonehead seminars on Washington’s open government laws would be in order for many local officials. Those laws are as clear as any, and they are of fundamental importance, yet some local boards and councils just don’t get it. On a regular basis, local governing bodies violate either the law or the spirit of the law by hiding the public’s business from the public. The most recent case in the South Sound was the Tacoma School Board’s apparently illegal decision, in a closed meeting, to eliminate a candidate for the job of interim superintendent."

http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/story/122302.html

Yep. The Open Public Meetings Act is no longer a functional law. The OPMA has, in effect, been repealed by continuous and unremedied violations. The reason? There is no realistic downside to violating the OPMA. The eight gauntlets are why.