State Supreme Court Says Advisory Committees Are Not Subject to the OPMA
October 6, 2015
by Bob Meinig
Category:
Open Public Meetings Act
The Washington State Supreme Court last week, in
Citizens Alliance v. San Juan County, finally confronted head-on the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) issue of when a committee of a governing body “acts on behalf of” the governing body so as to have to comply with the OPMA. It did so by adopting, in a 6-3 decision, the reasoning of a 1986 attorney general opinion, concluding, among other things, that the OPMA does not apply to purely advisory committees of a governing body. The court’s opinion also touches on related OPMA issues that merit attention.
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