A clear violation

Oregon’s Public Meetings Law explains in admirably clear language what school boards and other public agencies aren’t supposed to do during an executive session, which is a meeting, or portion of a meeting from which the public can legally be excluded.

Among these prohibitions, to quote the law: “No executive session may be held for the purpose of taking any final action or making any final decision.”

The Baker School Board violated that provision of the law Friday evening when it agreed to have vice chair Damien Yervasi telephone Walter Wegener Jr. and offer him the job of superintendent.

Wegener accepted the board’s offer. He later confirmed that in a telephone interview with Herald education reporter Chris Collins.

Yervasi, along with Board Chair Deon Strommer, disagree with our contention.

They argue that their actions don’t constitute a final decision because Wegener had only verbally accepted the board’s $102,537 salary but had not signed a contract.

Agreeing to commit $102,537 in public money sounds to us like a pretty significant decision.

We’ll concede it’s possible, albeit extremely unlikely, that Wegener will change his mind.

But that’s irrelevant as regards the state law.

When the school board adjourned Friday, its members had every reason to believe that they had hired a superintendent.

The taxpayers who will foot the bill for Wegener’s salary deserve to know what happened Friday night.

Ensuring they have access to that information, in fact, is one of the principal purposes of the Public Meetings Law.

Although that law doesn’t define either “final action” or “final decision,” the Oregon Attorney General’s public meetings manual addresses just the sort of situation that played out Friday night.

“A decision to formally offer the position to one candidate is a final decision, even before acceptance,” the manual states.

To be clear, we don’t believe the school board intended to hide its hiring of Wegener from the public.

But the Public Meetings Law governs the actions of elected officials, not their intentions.

And the Baker School Board, by offering Wegener the job during a meeting the public was precluded from attending, clearly violated not only the letter, but also the spirit, of that law.

Nor is that our only concern.

The board also sidestepped the provision in the law regarding the setting of a public officer’s salary.

Quoting again the Attorney General’s manual: “We have concluded that this provision does not allow discussion of an officer’s salary to be conducted in executive session in connection with the hiring of that officer.”

The school board, of course, didn’t merely discuss Wegener’s salary on Friday; they offered him the specific amount.

Finally, we’re troubled by a comment Yervasi made to Collins on Monday morning.

After Collins told him that the Herald planned to publish a story in Monday’s edition reporting that the board had offered the job to Wegener and that he had accepted, even though the board had not yet publicly announced any decision, Yervasi asked Collins whether the paper was willing to jeopardize its “relationship” with the school board.

The only relationship we have with the school board is a professional one. The basis of that relationship is our goal of gathering information which our readers want to know, and which they are legally entitled to have.

Anything that jeopardizes that relationship is, in our estimation, an affront not so much to the media as to members of the public, who expect the media to tell them what their government is up to.

Ensuring that the flow of information continues with as few impediments as possible is the reason the Oregon Legislature passed the Public Meetings Law in 1973.

That law is just as relevant now as it was then. And we urge all public agencies to strive to comply with it.