Open meeting law changes urged

LEWISTON – Lawmakers need to revamp Idaho’s open meeting law to remove ambiguities that make it difficult to enforce, state Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said.

“We need to have a serious discussion with the interested parties,” Wasden said. “We believe that legislation is necessary to resolve some of these issues.”

The problem became apparent in February when Wasden concluded that the state Board of Education may have violated the open meeting law on Dec. 6 by going into executive session.

But Wasden said penalizing board members with a $150 fine was not an option because of the burden of proving they knowingly violated the law, which is how Idaho’s open meeting law is interpreted.

That means agencies in the state can meet illegally behind closed doors but not be penalized if members didn’t know the meeting was illegal.

“Without some clarification from the Legislature the law is virtually unenforceable,” said Bob Cooper, Wasden’s spokesman. “You have to prove knowingness. It’s an almost impossible burden for a prosecutor to prove.”

Shortly after the Dec. 6 closed-door meeting by the Board of Education, The Spokesman-Review filed a complaint with the attorney general alleging the board illegally excluded the public from the executive session where it discussed eliminating the ninth-grade Idaho Standards Achievement Test. Other newspapers later joined the complaint.

The open meeting law requires 24-hour notice be given before holding an executive session. The notice must list specific reasons for the closed meeting.

The law allows executive sessions to cover such things as hiring new employees, disciplinary action, labor negotiations and plotting legal strategy, among other things.

The attorney general’s investigation found that the board did discuss for three to four minutes the possibility of cutting the ninth-grade statewide test. Wasden said board members believed it to be a proper discussion in the context of talks about financial constraints on hiring.

Knowingly violating the law carries a maximum $150 fine per person for a first offense.

Wasden said members of the media should take part in the discussion of how the open meeting law should be changed, along with those who would be governed by the law.