Eight months after a complaint was filed last fall, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission has found that the Lakeside City Council did, in fact, violate statutes pertaining to public meetings. The commission meets once a month and will decide if any penalties will be assessed. Penalties can include a fine of $1,000, assessed individually against any offending official.

Sometimes a member of the public may file suit to gain access to unauthorized executive sessions or refusal to release public records as Nike did against Beaverton, costing the city approximately $1 million in legal fees when it lost the case. There are other consequences as well…

In a case where a public body meets illegally in secret, a judge can void any decision the body reaches, forcing it to go back to the table and meet in public.

That’s known as the “do-over” because it can result in a board trying to recreate its decision-making in a public setting.

One other possibility is that the state ethics commission could levy a penalty of up to $1,000 against an official who violates the meetings law, but the commission has been weakened in recent years by budget cuts.

We witnessed a “do-over” on May 17, when commissioners Main and Parry performed a public deliberation to appoint Fred Messerle as interim commissioner, replacing the late Nikki Whitty. (Comically, Messerle was seated next to them in the commissioners chair even though he had not been sworn in or deliberated upon). We have not, however, witnessed a do-over of the appointment of Steve Jansen, also deliberated upon in executive session, as interim assessor.

During the May 17 meeting, immediately before the do-over, Main and Parry apologized for violating subsections of ORS 192.660 when they deliberated in executive session to fill an elected position. Main never actually admitted breaking the law instead calling their actions a “technical difficulty”. Randy Sanne, speaking at last week’s BOC meeting charged Main with belittling the seriousness of the matter by referring to it as a technical difficulty or a simple technicality. Main was defensive and quickly retorted, “Apparently not, according so far to the ethics commission”.

Considering how long it took for the underfunded ethics commission to reach a conclusion in the Lakeside matter, it may be some time before we find out if OGEC agrees with Main that violating Oregon statutes are little more than a glitch or hiccup. It is, however, upsetting that Main feels this way. Consequently, it may only be public pressure that keeps this commission in line…

But beyond the nuts and bolts of the law, there is a broader kind of sanction, in the opinion of Tim Gleason, dean of the University of Oregon’s journalism and communication school.

“The real punishment is that you have been publicly identified as having broken the law,” he said.

“The public culture of Oregon continues to be one of valuing openness,” Gleason said, and so open government relies not on fines and penalties but on the sense among members of the public that “openness is the right thing and the best thing.”

Sanne also took issue with the executive session that took place the morning of May 17, before the open session and apologies. While some of the topics in the executive session may have been legally exempt from the public, Main emerged from the session with Parry and Messerle (prior to being sworn in) with a prepared statement. It is clear that deliberations of some kind occurred as to the appointment of Messerle during this closed session. It is obvious the three of them knew the outcome before they walked out of that session.