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From: barbaraz%hawkeye.gwd.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET (Barbara Zanzig)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Computers and Open Meetings laws
Message-ID: <1864@hplabsc.HP.COM>
Date: Wed, 20-May-87 20:16:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.1864
Posted: Wed May 20 20:16:23 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 23-May-87 09:16:44 EDT
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An editorial in The (Portland) Oregonian:

OPENNESS RESISTS CHIPPING

Oregon is inching toward truly interactive local government.  The Gresham
City Council has voted to supply its members with computer terminals in
their homes, to enable them to do research in the city's system at any
time.

Providing unpaid elected officials with the tools to do their job better
is easily worth the $6,000 appropriated for this purpose.  But in a state
with a strong Open Meetings Law and Open Records Law, does technology now
require an Open Electronic Impulses Law?

The Gresham computer system, like many others, permits users to send
messages to other users.  Anyone with a modicum of conspiracy theory can
easily imagine a quorum of the City Council logged on to their computers
together, busily conducting city business beyond the prying eyes of those
without user codes.

Gresham officials realize the risks involved.  Even if city residents
cannot gain access to the system, the information in it still belongs to
them.  And since a private conference call among a council quorum is
illegal, a computer caucus would equally constitute an access violation.

"What goes in is something we're concerned about, and I will probably
advise them to be conservative," says City Attorney Tom Sponsler.  "For
council members to communicate, with a quorum, on how they feel about
policy is not appropriate, and I will so advise them."

Sponsler thinks there is a greater potential for violations of the Open
Records Law than the Open Meetings Law.  "Anything of any substance," he
advises, "should not exist only online."  Members should also remember, as
Lt. Col. Oliver North could remind them, that anything put into a system
can later be pulled out of the system.

City Manager Wally Douthwaite expects that before the system goes on line,
Gresham will need a written policy on its use.  The need for clarification
may not stop there.

"There may be a time when computer use will be so universal that we will
need to take another look at the law," says Oregon Attorney General Dave
Frohnmayer.  "The Open Meetings Law was not designed for this technology."

The rules, Frohnmayer and Sponsler agree, should be clear.  Providing
information by computer is fine; debating and negotiating electronically
slips into silicon secrecy.

If the legal principle is clear, the technology should be able to follow.
All that is needed by Gresham - and the cities that will doubtless follow
its example - is a package of Open Meeting Software.

And people who understand its importance.

***[end of editorial]

I spoke to the reporter who covered the story, and he said it was an
email system, not an interactive conferencing system.  He thought they'd
be using a VAX 220 (?), and didn't know which operating system.

Barbara Zanzig
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