(The Center Square) – A Washington resident is suing the state’s Public Disclosure Commission, arguing that the campaign finance watchdog board has not been following state law when it enters closed session.
Arthur West, of Olympia, claimed in a lawsuit filed in February in Thurston Superior Court that the commission has repeatedly gone into closed session for the last two years without specifying the reason as required by state law.
Spokespersons for The PDC and the state Attorney General’s Office declined comment.
“We represent the Public Disclosure Commission as a client, and typically defer public comments on litigation to the state agencies that are the subject of it,” said Mike Faulk a spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office in an email.
West’s lawsuit said the lack of executive session notification makes it difficult for the public to determine if they are properly closing the meeting.
“Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission is no ordinary State commission shuffling paper for arcane bureaucratic purposes,“ the lawsuit states. “Rather, the PDC is, at least in theory, one of the state’s few institutional guardians of transparency in the electoral process. The PDC is entrusted with enforcing laws that are among the primary civil disinfections of campaign practices and disclosures in our democracy.”
West said in the lawsuit that the PDC’s own videos show that the commission violated the law at every single meeting for the last two years.
“Who’s to know if their real decision-making was not conducted in these 23 successive secret meetings? “ West said in an interview. “I simply cannot believe that they did not discuss public business or make decisions in secret at any of those 23 secret sessions over the last two years.”
The Center Square reviewed meeting videos and found that no reason was given before the board went into closed session.
Washington State law gives limited reasons as to when a board can go into closed session and requires the board president to specify those reasons. Permissible reasons for an executive session is to discuss litigation personnel matters, real estate transactions or pubic bids.
The open meeting act requires the exact area to be specified that justifies the executive session.
The State Attorney General, which is defending the campaign finance watchdog, is responsible for violations of the open meeting. Fines can start at $500 for the first violation and $1,000 for subsequent violations.
The law also allows citizen petitioners like West to recover court costs. Board members throughout Washington are required to attend trainings in the open meeting law to make sure they understand the rules.
The lawsuit comes as Olympia attorney Conner Edwards is attempting a long-shot bid to recall Washington Governor Bob Ferguson as a “pressure tactic” to have the state’s top executive make appointments to the two vacant seats on the Public Disclosure Commission.
Edwards says in an April 1 lawsuit in Thurston County that Ferguson is violating his oath of office for failing to fill the two vacancies on the five-member commission.
“My primary purpose in bringing this recall petition is to draw attention to the issue and put pressure on the governor’s office to fill the vacancies,” Edwards said in an interview with The Center Square. “If he goes ahead and fills those vacancies, odds are that I am going to withdraw the petition.”
Edwards, whose practice includes campaign finance issues, said one position has been vacant for 200 days and another for 400 days, leaving little excuse for the governor not to fill them.
While the commission can operate with a three-member quorum, Edwards said the commission would not be able to meet if a member was absent. State law requires the governor to fill the vacancies within 30 days.
A spokesperson for the governor did not respond to a request for comment.
