PORT TOWNSEND — The efforts of four new City Council members to organize a retreat before three of them officially took office is not a violation of the state Open Meetings Act.
But the decision they made jointly prior to taking office is not enforceable either.
The question of the retreat organized by then Councilwoman-elect Freida Fenn follows a Dec. 22 e-mail from Fenn to City Manager David Timmons in which she proposes an agenda for a planned Jan. 12 retreat.
In the e-mail, she said she had consulted with members-elect Kees Kolff and Michelle Sandoval and new Councilwoman Catharine Robinson regarding the proposed retreat and agenda.
Fenn apparently used e-mail to communicate with other council members-elect to organize the retreat.
Under state law, the e-mail of seated elected officials dealing with public matters is subject to the Open Records Act and therefore considered public.
Fenn did not seek input from Mayor Geoff Masci or Councilmen Alan Youse or Joe Finnie before attempting to organize a retreat — she later provided them with a retreat date and agenda.
The rest of this story appears in the Friday/Saturday Jefferson County edition of the Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.
