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Board debates whether a West End site visit violated open‑meeting rules; director's field notes separated from minutes
Summary
Members of the Clallam County Parks Advisory Board and the parks director disputed how a May site visit should be recorded. The board voted to separate the director's post‑meeting notes from the official minutes after questions about whether a special meeting had been properly adjourned and noticed.
A dispute over how to record a May site visit and whether the county complied with open‑meeting requirements took up substantial time at the June 3 Parks Advisory Board meeting.
Several board members objected to language in the draft minutes that incorporated the parks director's informal account of events after the meeting ended. The board sought clearer separation between the official minutes and the director's personal notes, which staff agreed to place in a separate section labeled "Don's notes." The board then approved amended minutes with that separation.
During the discussion, at least one board member said the group had effectively continued a specially noticed meeting without formally adjourning and that doing so could violate open‑meeting rules requiring advance notice for cancelling or changing meeting agendas; the director replied that staff follow public‑meeting training and that the meeting had ended when the board left the public room. Participants debated whether attendees who traveled to the scheduled site visit were denied an opportunity to be heard when the visit did not occur.
The board's action was procedural: members approved a motion to amend and separate the director's field notes from the official minutes. Staff recorded that the meeting adjourned at the time the board left the meeting room and that Don's notes would be appended as a separate document rather than included in the adopted minutes.
The board directed staff to prepare minutes that clearly label official proceedings and to keep any post‑meeting narrative material distinct from the formal record. The transcript records board concern about a 72‑hour notice requirement for cancelling special meetings; staff said they would review how the minute language was presented and make the requested clarifications.
