Despite early efforts and action, the Legislature failed to pass two major reforms to the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA). However, it did provide cities with additional time to redistrict under the Washington Voting Rights Act of 2018 (VRA).

The past year has shown the critical need for cities to hold virtual public meetings during an emergency. HB 1056 would have amended the OPMA to allow governing bodies to hold virtual public meetings during a declared emergency. If it had passed, the bill could have been extremely helpful for many cities as the state enters the wildfire season and anticipates other extreme weather-related emergencies. After the bill passed the House with unanimous support in late January it ended up stuck in the Senate Rules Committee and failed to pass before the cut-off deadline. We are optimistic that we can push the Legislature to take action to adopt these common-sense updates to the outdated emergency provisions of the OPMA in 2022.

HB 1329, while less impactful than the above bill, would have encouraged cities to continue providing remote access for public meetings and required cities to allow for public testimony before any final action was taken. HB 1329 was a compromise based on the interest of several legislators to ensure more public engagement in public meetings. We anticipate that this bill, and other changes to the OPMA, will resurface in 2022.

The impacts of COVID-19 were widespread, including affecting the rollout of the 2020 Federal Census. Normally, the census results would not be a major issue for cities; however, under the VRA, cities that conduct elections for council seats by district or ward are required to redistrict after census data becomes available. Unfortunately, with census data not expected out until the end of September, the VRA would have created an impossible deadline for cities. SB 5013 allows cities that need to redistrict until November 15, 2022 to submit their redistricting plans.