Matt Ready

At the October 14 board meeting, board chair Jill Buhler made the following statement about the recording issue:

Speaker 45 (Consultant Karma, hired by CEO, frequent speaker at AWPHD conferences):         Does anybody have an issue if Matt records a meeting with his own personal device?

Speaker 48 (JBuhler Board Chair):         Yes, and the MRSC agrees with us.

Who is the MRSC?

The Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC) is a nonprofit organization that helps local governments across Washington State better serve their citizens by providing legal and policy guidance on any topic. At MRSC, we believe the most effective government is a well-informed local government, and as cities, counties, and special purpose districts face rapid changes and significant challenges, we are here to help.

For more than 80 years, local governments have turned to MRSC for assistance on every topic imaginable. Our trusted staff attorneys, policy consultants, and finance experts have decades of experience and provide personalized guidance by phone and email, at conferences and training sessions, and through our extensive online resources. Every year we answer thousands of questions as we help staff and elected officials research policies, comply with state and federal laws, and improve day-to-day operations.

MRSC is also at the forefront of emerging issues that affect local government operations. We are the go-to source of information on major legislation, including the Growth Management Act, the legalization of recreational marijuana, and the ever-evolving complexities of the Public Records Act, to name a few. When the legal landscape changes, we are here to clarify the issues and help local government leaders make the right decisions for their communities.

MRSC serves all 281 cities and towns in Washington, all 39 counties, and hundreds of special purpose districts, state agencies, and other government partners. Originally established in 1934 as the University of Washington Bureau of Governmental Research, MRSC has operated as a private nonprofit since 1969.

What does the MRSC do for public hospital districts and other municipal government agencies?

• Free One-on-One Consultation:  Have a question? Ask MRSC! Officials and employees from eligible government agencies can use our free one-on-one consultation service. With one call or click you can get a personalized answer from one of our trusted attorneys, policy consultants, or finance experts!
• Explore topics on the MRSC website to get legal and policy guidance on hundreds of local government issues, including helpful explanations, relevant statutes and court decisions, examples of different policy approaches, and recommended resources for further information.

What is the MRSC Opinion on hospital commissioners and public hospital district employees pressuring another public hospital commissioner to turn off their personal recording device during an open public meeting?

Below is the response I received to my inquiry.  I was very curious if Commissioner Buhler was right that the MRSC would “agree” with the actions taken to attempt to pressure and intimidate me into turning off my recorder.

___________

Matthew:

 While I can give you some general guidance on public meetings and the OPMA, MRSC’s role is not to be the legal counsel for an agency or for an employee/official of an agency. We provide general guidance on municipal issues, but we do not provide specific legal advice. Thus, I cannot tell you whether there were any OPMA violations or crimes committed in the transcript you provided. You will need to consult with your agency’s attorney or with a private lawyer on that question.

I did spot a question in your email that I am able to answer: Can a commissioner or a private citizen record a public meeting of the hospital commission?

The answer is, yes, any person can audio record an open public meeting of the commission so long as it is not done in a disruptive manner. See AGO 1998 No. 15. However, while a recording done by a private citizen is not a public record, a personal recording done by a commissioner may be. This area is not crystal clear from a PRA perspective, but the Washington State Archives has previously indicated that, if the agency itself doesn’t record the meeting and the only recording is made by a commissioner on a personal device, that recording is subject to a 6-year retention. If the Archives considers this type of recording to be subject to retention under chapter 40.14 RCW, then it should be considered a public record under chapter 42.56.RCW. I am not aware of any case law on this issue, although there are some cases addressing records on personal devices/accounts (see our blog posts on this issue here and here). PRA/retention issues is likely one reason why an agency would want to adopt a policy outlining expectations for recording of a meeting.

######  Name Redacted (because someday people will be very embarrassed for their roles in this fiasco)

MRSC Managing Attorney

Conclusion

So I think we need to rewrite the MRSC about page:

The Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC) is a nonprofit organization that helps local governments across Washington State better serve their citizens by providing legal and policy guidance on any topic – unless that topic is recording a public meeting.  We believe you have the right to record a public meeting, but if you are harassed by people and pressured to stop recording the meeting, we are going to stick our heads in the sand like an ostrich and say “I dunno…”.   At MRSC, we believe the most effective government is a well-informed local government (except when it comes to respecting basic rights regarding access to information shared at open public meetings of public hospital districts), and as cities, counties, and special purpose districts face rapid changes and significant challenges, we are here to help as long as you don’t ask us any actual serious pressing questions covering basic rights, democracy, and moral behavior in open public meetings.

Much better.  We need to try to keep our descriptions of reality accurate.  What else do we have if not a true record of reality?