A city of Shoreline planning commissioner filed a complaint with the state earlier this year about the way the Shoreline City Council has conducted its siting discussions for a new jail -- in secret, which the planner alleges violates the Open Public Meetings Act.
Seattle and a group called the Northeast Cities are looking to chip in on a new $226 million misdemeanant jail that opponents (including Real Change) say is unnecessary. But Shoreline chose its potential jail site, which is now in the final running, with no public meetings, says Janne Kaje in a Jan. 1 complaint filed with the attorney general's office. And "City Council discussions on this matter," he writes, "were apparently conducted in Executive Session as a condition of an agreement the city of Seattle."
The open meetings act, Kaje says, limits executive sessions to real estate transactions in which public discussion might increase the price of a property. That doesn't seem to be the case with the jail site, he says -- but, unless he's got money to sue Shoreline, it may be a moot point.
Tim Lord, the state's open government ombudsman, says violations of the open meetings and public records acts "are not enforced by any state agency or state officer. Both allow a citizen to enforce the law through a lawsuit."