County attorney briefs commission on Open Public Meetings and Public Records laws; commissioners request official email accounts

Kellen Kustra, a deputy prosecuting attorney for Whatcom County, told the Charter Review Commission that Washington’s Open Public Meetings Act and Public Records Act are broad and can create pitfalls for commissioners who communicate outside public meetings.

Kustra emphasized that a “meeting” for the Open Public Meetings Act can include electronic communications if a quorum — eight or more commissioners — discusses commission business together. “The reply-all button is your enemy now,” he said, summarizing the risk of group email threads that discuss commission business.

On records law, Kustra told commissioners to keep a firm separation between personal communications and commission business: records created or retained for commission business may be public records subject to disclosure and retention rules. He noted the typical retention expectation and advised commissioners that staff will assist with public-records requests.

Following the briefing, commissioners voted to request that the county provide official email accounts to Charter Review Commission members and to create a budget line if needed to fund those accounts. Council staff said IT had previously not issued accounts to nonemployees; Councilmember Barry Buchanan and Clerk Kathy Halka said they would help clarify administrative options and follow up. The motion requesting email addresses and a budget line passed in a roll-call vote with one abstention and one absence recorded in the meeting minutes.

Staff also outlined retained budget items for commission support including staffing, in-kind audio/Zoom equipment, and an estimated advertising line for notice of proposed charter amendments later in the process.