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Oregon board debates whether to accept voluntary trade-secret submissions while media can attend executive sessions
Summary
The Prescription Drug Affordability Board weighed options after a manufacturer voluntarily submitted confidential material, with staff warning Oregon law allows media in executive sessions. Members suggested drafting a policy to decline volunteered trade-secret materials or requiring media registration and confidentiality agreements before accepting them.
The Oregon Prescription Drug Affordability Board spent a substantial portion of its Sept. 17 meeting weighing whether to accept voluntary trade-secret or other confidential submissions from manufacturers, after staff reported a recent letter identified portions of its content as confidential.
Courtney Whitlock, the board’s senior policy analyst, told members that Oregon’s public meetings statute (ORS provision cited during the meeting as “192.660 section 4”) allows media into executive sessions, complicating efforts to maintain confidentiality for information provided voluntarily by manufacturers. “It gets a little bit fuzzy on how to integrate the confidentiality and ensure confidentiality when the media is allowed into executive session,” Whitlock said, summarizing options other states use to protect proprietary data.
Board members reviewed how peer states handle confidential submissions: Colorado and other states run truly closed executive sessions or require an application and secure file transfer systems for confidential materials; Minnesota narrows public disclosure by letting the board decide whether submitted material is proprietary. Several members stressed that Oregon’s media-in-exec-session rule makes those models difficult to replicate here.
Board member John Murray, who had earlier declared a potential conflict of interest because he owns Murray Drugs Incorporated, raised procedural proposals including media registration and signing confidentiality notices. “One thing that this other board has done … is to have media register … so that you know who your media is that’s attending. They sign a confidentiality notice, for example,” Murray said.
Vice Chair Amy Burns and other members questioned whether the board can legally create an exemption to allow a closed executive session without media; staff said they would consult leadership and legal counsel, and that the new executive director could help explore legislative options. Several members, including Laurie Hoagland and others, voiced concern about the risk and operational burden of handling confidential data if media can attend; Hoagland said the board might be better to “make it clear that we are not receiving it.”
Courtney Whitlock offered immediate next steps: draft policy language that would (a) explicitly decline unsolicited voluntary trade-secret submissions as a default, while (b) researching whether an exemption is possible or other procedural mechanisms (such as media confidentiality acknowledgments) could be developed. Staff said they would return with draft policy language and legal clarifications at the next meeting.
The discussion ended with staff agreeing to draft sample policy language and to research whether any statutory exemption is feasible; the board did not adopt a final policy at the Sept. 17 meeting.
