Hot Topics and Recent Developments: the Open Public Meetings Act

• What are the requirements for taking minutes of an open public meeting?
• May we use an artifical intelligence (AI) notetaker for meeting minutes?
• How do we cancel meetings properly?
• What is the difference between an executive and a closed session?

I recently presented a webinar on the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), titled OPMA Essentials from Legal Requirements to Everyday Practice (available to view on demand). Based on the engagement of the 200 webinar attendees and the insightful questions they posed, I thought it timely to follow up with a blog on OPMA issues that appear to be of most interest to local governments.

It is essential for elected officials and local government leaders to understand the requirements of the OPMA, since the serious consequences that can result from an OPMA violation include personal monetary penalties and potential recall from elected office.

Meeting Minutes: Requirements for Taking Minutes

Meeting minutes are required for all regular and special meetings of the governing body. These minutes do not need to be verbatim; action minutes (noting attendees, agenda items, and actions taken) are recommended and preferred.

Minutes must be available for public inspection and, while many agencies do so, state law does not require minutes be published on the agency website. MRSC has created Meeting Minutes Practice Tips, which readers can download and refer to as needed.

Meeting Minutes: Use of AI Notetakers

AI can help transcribe or summarize meeting notes: AI notetakers could be a good resource for those staff members who are responsible for both taking minutes and monitoring or participating in a meeting.

That said, like all AI tools, human beings should always review AI-generated minutes to ensure accuracy. Also, consider the public records implications of such records. My colleague wrote on the intersection of public records and generative AI and provided some guidance for local governments using this tool.

Setting (and Canceling) Regular and Special Meetings

Regular meetings must be set by an adopted schedule, which needs to indicate the date, time, and location of regular meetings. While the OPMA doesn’t refer to canceling meetings, MRSC recommends the following:

• If the agency knows the meeting must be canceled in advance, prepare a notice of cancellation stating that the meeting is rescheduled to the next regular meeting date.
• If the agency does not know of the need to cancel in advance, then the members present (or the clerk, if no members are present) can adjourn the meeting to the next regularly scheduled meeting.
• In both cases, the agency should post the notice of cancellation or adjournment on the door of the physical meeting location and on its website.

Review my colleague’s blog, Best Laid Plans: Following the OPMA When Adjourning or Canceling a Public Meeting, for more in-depth information on this topic.

What should a special meeting notice cover?

Special meetings are held to discuss or take action on an item (or items) that cannot wait until the next regular meeting.

A specific type of meeting notice must be prepared and posted/provided to certain individuals at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting. The special meeting notice does not need to be published in the newspaper.

The notice must include the following:

• Date and time of the meeting,
• Location of the meeting, and
• Business to be transacted.

Note that the description of business to be transacted should not be vague. A 2025 Washington Court of Appeals case (McFarland v. Tompkins) held as insufficient a special meeting notice that described the business to be transacted as “miscellaneous business that comes before the Board” because “a member of the public could interpret the agenda subject’s vague nomenclature to describe limitless topics.”

Executive Sessions Versus Closed Meetings

Topics that may be covered by the governing body in executive session are set forth in RCW 42.30.110(1); no other topics besides those set forth in RCW 42.30.110(1) may be discussed in executive session.

While the agency’s chief executive (mayor, manager, administrator), agency attorney, or staff can recommend that an executive session be held, the governing body has the final say on whether an executive session is added to the agenda.

An executive session can be added to a regular or special meeting agenda in advance, or it can be added at the meeting. A special meeting can also be scheduled solely to hold an executive session.

While minutes are not required (or recommended) for that portion of the meeting where the governing body attends an executive session, the presiding officer must announce the purpose for the executive session and the meeting minutes must reflect this purpose.

Even though state law doesn’t require that a specific statute allowing for the executive session be cited in the agenda or the minutes, MRSC recommends citing the statute (along with the purpose) allowing for the executive session.

What makes a closed meeting different?

Closed meetings are distinct from executive sessions. Closed meetings are not subject to the requirements of the OPMA and are allowed only for four reasons (and, as a general matter, local governments would only rely on the first two topics for a closed session):

1. Quasi-judicial matters;
2. Collective bargaining;
3. Licensing; and
4. Matters controlled by the Administrative Procedures Act.

See RCW 42.30.140 for more information.

As a general matter, the governing body may meet on these topics without publishing or posting notice of the meeting or inviting the public since these meetings are simply not subject to the OPMA.

A quasi-judicial matter refers to the governing body acting in a quasi-judicial capacity, which most commonly occurs in the land use context, such as considering variances and site-specific rezones. While these types of land use matters often require a public hearing, the governing body (acting in its quasi-judicial capacity) may deliberate in closed session.

Council discussion of collective bargaining issues and negotiations similarly may occur in a closed meeting. The labor agreement discussions allowed in a closed meeting include:

• Contract negotiations,
• Grievance meetings, and
• Planning or adopting the strategy or position to be taken during the course of any collective bargaining proceeding or negotiation.

Serial Meetings (and Why You Don’t Want to Have One)

Unlike pre-planned meetings of a governing body (i.e., regular, special, closed, etc.), a serial meeting is one which happens (often inadvertently) when a majority of members of a governing body have a series of gatherings or exchange communications in such a way that the majority collectively ‘take action’ as defined in RCW 42.30.020(3).

Also known as rolling meetings, serial meetings are not allowed under the OPMA.

To explore this concept, take the example of a five-member city council. A serial meeting would occur if the polling councilmember (councilmember A) called councilmember B to discuss an issue, then subsequently contacted councilmember C to share that discussion. Although these discussions did not occur at the same time, the councilmembers in question had a collective intent to meet and conduct agency business.

This serial meeting concept has been explored in a number of cases, including:

• Woods v. Battleground School District (2001), where a majority of school board members exchanged emails about the superintendent’s performance, which was in violation of the OPMA.
• Egan v. Seattle (2014), where a draft press release was reviewed and agreed to by seven out of nine councilmembers outside of a public meeting. (The draft press release stated that a bill repealing a tax on large business “has the support of the majority of the city council.”)

Serial meetings were covered in more detail in a 2020 MRSC blog, What Constitutes a Serial Meeting Under the OPMA?

Conclusion

The OPMA has many procedural requirements, and it’s easy for an agency to get tripped up with OPMA compliance. MRSC has many resources to assist local governments with staying compliant, including:

• The Open Public Meetings Act: How It Applies to Washington Cities, Counties, and Special Purpose Districts
• OPMA Practice Tips and Checklists
• Open Public Meetings Act Basics

We also have the on-demand OPMA Essentials webinar mentioned previously in this blog and plan to hold a live webinar in spring 2026 for those who prefer live webinars instead of recorded versions.

As always, local government staff and elected officials are welcome to submit a question to our legal or policy consultants on the OPMA (or other municipal law/policy) via Ask MRSC.