The April 9 edition of The Reporter carried my Letter to the Editor describing a violation of the open public meetings act by members of our City Council. This action concerned legislation in Olympia to form Community Facilities Districts and the efforts by Maple Valley to modify the legislation. Nothing was ever discussed in the public arena as required by law before action was taken on behalf of the citizens. While these council members may believe their actions were appropriate, they were actually in violation of the open public meetings act and any direction given was illegal.

So imagine my surprise when during the Audit Committee meeting on April 7 I discovered a bill for $10,000 from Foster Pepper PLLC for lobbying activities on behalf of Maple Valley concerning the Community Finance Districts legislation. Foster Pepper documented their lobbying activities which began the last week of January during the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) legislative conference attended by council members from Maple Valley. Again, I am amazed and disappointed that this money could be authorized without having ever been included in a council meeting agenda with appropriate public discussion and action. I am also disappointed that no mention of it was made when we did discuss this matter. The discussion was admittedly brief, but somehow I believe a $10,000 oversight is just too much to be forgotten. So now I am wondering what else is being kept from our citizens and at least one duly elected council member (me).

The current violation and expenditure of $10,000 in apparent violation of the law should be given the most thorough scrutiny.

The council members attending the AWC conference could have briefed the whole council at the meeting on Feb. 1. They could have told us they had become aware of legislation going through Olympia and found it contained provisions extremely detrimental to Maple Valley. They could have told us they had added this potential legislation to our list of legislative priorities. They could have told us they felt it was important to hire a lobbyist to help us effect changes to the legislation. I doubt there would have been any objection to the actions they took and by doing so they would have neutralized the impact of the Open Public Meetings Act violation. They chose not to do this and continue to try and justify their violation of the law. We have policies and procedures in place in Maple Valley which were not followed. They are there for a reason. Our laws are there for a purpose. In the case of the open public meetings act the law wasn’t followed. I can only hope this council will not have another such lapse. The ends should not be used to justify the means. “We violated the law, but it was OK because we did so much good.” Doesn’t work for me.

Linda A. Johnson

Maple Valley City Council member