Richland School Board votes to settle open meetings lawsuit. Here’s what they’ll pay
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Richland School Board Recall Effort
A high-profile group of voters filed to recall board members Semi Bird, Audra Byrd and Kari Williams after their controversial vote to make face masks optional.
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The Richland School District will pay an Olympia man $5,000 after the school board voted unanimously Thursday to settle a lawsuit that claimed public meetings violations.
Three Richland board members — Audra Byrd, Semi Bird and Kari Williams — also agreed to attend Open Public Meetings Act training and the district agrees to stop deleting text messages as part of the settlement.
Text message are considered public records when they are used to conduct school district business, including messages among school members, staff and/or the public.
The settlement is much larger than the $500 fines per violation that would have been paid out had the suit gone to trial and the district been found guilty.
“I think it’s a fair settlement,” Arthur West, a well-known government transparency advocate, told the Tri-City Herald. “I think that this fosters the goal of the OPMA ....”
Each party has agreed to pay their own legal fees. West, who is not an attorney, represented himself and has also agreed to withdraw his public records request as part of the agreement.
A school district spokesperson could not be reached about how much in legal fees the district has accumulated so far in the case.
The Richland School Board was in a closed-door executive session for more than an hour on Thursday discussing litigation before the decision was announced.
When the five board members reconvened in a public session, Williams, the board’s vice president, read a prepared statement.
“The parties agree that this settlement is a compromise of a disputed claim, charge or violation of the Open Public Meetings Act, and it is not to be construed as an admission of wrongdoing on the part of Richland School District and the board members, who expressly deny any wrongdoing,” Williams said.
In their statement, the three board members continue to deny they violated state law, but agreed to settle “based upon their belief that it is in furtherance of their goal to act as good stewards of public funds” and because the district’s attorney fees could exceed the amount paid to resolve the lawsuit.
The mask vote is among five allegations raised by a Richland voter group that is trying to recall the three board members.
On Wednesday, a judge said the group could begin collecting signatures to try put the issue to voters in a few months
Mask optional vote
West filed his lawsuit against the district and three school board members after a controversial vote to make COVID mask wearing optional immediately in violation of Gov. Jay Inslee’s statewide mandate on indoor masking.
Two days later, at another special meeting, the board amended its vote to coincide with the lifting of the mandate statewide.
West’s lawsuit argued that the Richland board and district failed to provide sufficient notice to the public as required under state law about the mask vote and that the final vote was out of compliance with the open meetings act.
The board did not include any language on the meeting agenda to suggest a vote was being taken and the resolution listed was vague and its meaning had shifted over the weeks it had been considered.
The Washington Coalition for Open Government, the largest advocate for government transparency in Washington, called the meeting out as a potential violation of OPMA.
While state law doesn’t limit governments from adding items to agendas at regular meetings, it is more picky about what happens at special meetings.
The notice must be sent out to the public 24 hours in advance of the meeting and needs to say where the meeting takes place and “the business to be transacted.”
“Final disposition shall not be taken on any other matter at such meetings by the governing body,” according to state law.
Reporter Cameron Probert contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 3:50 PM.
