Critics Contend Citizen Panel Breaking State Law Public Getting Short Shrift, Judge Told

The citizen panel entrusted with setting pay levels for the governor, the Legislature and other state officials is giving the public short shrift as it makes its decisions, critics told a Thurston County judge on Monday.

The 16-member Citizens Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials was accused of breaking state law by failing to adequately publicize its meetings and for holding all of its hearings before developding a salary proposal to which citizens could respond.

The panel has held seven sessions this year, all designated “special meeting” and thus exempt from the public notice requirements of a regularly scheduled meeting.

The commission voted last Friday to freeze the salaries of Gov. Gary Locke, the state Legislature and most state elected officials. The panel will meet on Saturday to complete its work on pay levels for judges, the secretary of state and the attorney general.

After that, the group plans to file the pay schedule with the secretary of state and consider its work done.

That’s exactly backwards, and is illegal, Citizens for Leaders with Ethics & Accountability Now (CLEAN) told acting Thurston County Superior Court Judge Robert Doran.

If the public is to be meaningfully involved, as sponsors of a 1986 constitutional amendment creating the panel promised in the Voters’ Pamphlet, the commission should propose a pay schedule and then hold at least four public hearings, said CLEAN attorney Shawn Newman.

The assistant attorney general who represents the commission, Rich Heath, said the panel has followed proper procedure, both in public notice for all of its meetings and in the sequence of holding the hearings before acting on pay levels.

Doran seemed to side with the challengers, but took the case under advisement for several days.

Doran said the commission’s view that it has no regularly scheduled meetings could lead to the odd conclusion that the public has no inherent right to be notified of public hearings.

He said the law creating the commission says that prior to adopting the final pay schedule, it must hold at least four public hearings “thereon,” apparently meaning hearings on the tentative salary proposal.

Heath said the commission has never read the law that way in any of its 10 years of existence. It would be meaningless to hold hearings just to notify the public of conclusions the commission already had reached, he said.

Newman countered that in the Legislature or other policymaking body, the usual procedure is to propose a bill or ordinance and then invite the public to comment and suggest changes. A final bill then is passed.

Heath said if the judge requires the commission to hold hearings after it adopts the final plan on Saturday, they will have to be scheduled quickly. The new salaries have to be filed by June 2.