PORT TOWNSEND — The Jefferson Transit Authority board is seeking people to serve on a citizen advisory committee.
The board on Tuesday voted unanimously to adopt the Citizen Advisory Committee’s (CAC) bylaws and rules, and begin the search so as to involve more people from diverse backgrounds, areas and interests.
Board members agreed that CAC’s mission is to advocate for public transit and to serve in an advisory capacity to Jefferson Transit.
Membership will be composed of not more than 15 or less than seven members representing a variety of interests and groups such as different geographic areas of the county, diverse users, regular users or commuters and those from a variety of private organizations and businesses.
Positions will be either two-year or four-year appointments.
In the first year, the committee will conduct four regular meetings.
The CAC has the ability to form sub-committees to investigate matters if needed.
Board member Ariel Speser, a Port Townsend City Council member, provided an overview of the fine tuning of the final edits, based on recommendations from the last meeting.
“The bylaws call out a set amount of meetings that would be at the Transit Center at 63 Four Corners Road with staff,” she said.
”We did not want to preclude the CAC from meeting additional times or in other locations in the county. “
We believe they can do that.
“There are four meetings requiring them to be here to be compliant with the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) and to have all the conditions met,” Speser said.
“If CAC wanted to be more active and do more activities, they could. We’ve looked at this during every meeting for the past year, and I would suggest we move it forward.”
Board member Kate Dena, a county commissioner, questioned if advisory boards are subject to OPMA.
Speser said the more conservative approach is that “everything is subject to OPMA and Open Public Records Act.”
“When I drafted it, that’s what I intended,” Speser said.
Boad member Kathleen Kler, a county commissioner, said that her concern “is that even though we are looking at this as giving more freedom to the committee, it still sets up meetings that aren’t noticed and aren’t recorded. I’m reluctant to go into that gray area.”
Chairman David Faber, a City Council member, said it makes sense to have CAC and subcommittees subject to OPMA.
“I’d much rather insure that they abide by the OPMA rather than be subjected to frivolous lawsuits,” he said. “It would be frustrating and expense for Jefferson Transit.”
Dean said she’s recently met with members of the Municipal Research Service Center and “many attorneys.”
“Washington tends to fall in favor of open government transparency,” she said. “I do think subcommittees that do not constitute a quorum and are not taking official action could still function outside of OPMA, but we need to be advised as such.”
Dean asked if this provision would be risk to a subcommittee.
“Are we discouraging active engagement and putting undue pressure on staff if there were a lot of subcommittee topics? Committees would be less effective if they are constrained by this rule unnecessarily.”
Speser encouraged the board to pass the bylaws in their most limited way noting that they can always be amended.
An amendment to the motion to accept included language that reads,”the CAC shall have the ability to form subcommittees as needed, subject to the approval of the JTA Board.”
Information about the Citizen Advisory Committee and an application form are expected to be placed online by today at www.jeffersontransit.com.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Jeannie McMacken can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jmcmacken@peninsuladailynews.com
