10/31/2006: "CC To Provide More Information To Public"

The CC (County Council) is making plans to bring a bit more sunshine to their meetings by providing copies of reports and information to the public prior to Council meetings, and by holding some of the Council meetings on Lopez, Orcas, and even -perhaps- Shaw Island.

Councilman Bob Myhr has long been a strong advocate of taking the government to the people, given the difficulty and time issues of inter-island travel, but there may now be enough support from the other Council members to make it happen. A suggested tentative schedule is to hold five meetings on San Juan island -the county seat- and then hold one meeting on another island. When possible the sixth meeting would have some issues on the agenda that may have a direct effect on the host island; but as Myhr pointed out, anything that is relevant to one island will have some degree of relevance to the county as a whole.

As for dissemination of material, the Council has for sometime given voice to the wisdom of providing copies of drafts and other material to the public and the press so that the audience can follow along with the Council as the material is discussed at a council meeting, but they have been very inconsistent in doing so.

Now there is a proposal that the Council make it a policy to produce extra sets of the material they receive, and make it available to the public prior to the meeting in which it will be a topic of discussion. County Administrator Pete Rose told the Council that "I cannot stress enough the importance of making public packets available days prior to meetings", adding that "It is just good government".

Staff suggested that they could put the information into a binder, and make it available to the public if they asked for it, but when asked his opinion, Rose told the Council that his policy has been to produce extra packets for the press and interested members of the public.

The town of Friday Harbor has done this for years, and while some departments in the county have also provided information as a normal policy, the County Council, and the Board of County Commissioners before them, have been reluctant to do so, citing a host of reasons, from expense of copies, to lack of staff, and even questioning the right of the public to have access to draft information, even though any information discussed or referred to in an open session is required by law to be available to the public.

The discussion ended with Bob Myhr stating "I can see no reason why we cannot do this", and Chairman Lichter suggesting that they do it to the extent "practical". As County Administrator, it will be up to Mr. Rose to decide what is practical, and what is necessary for "good government".