Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, cities have operated public meetings under emergency proclamations issued by Gov. Inslee. Now that the state is set to reopen on June 30, you may want to know where things stand with the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA).

At this point, there are two clear paths forward for how the state can manage the OPMA:

1. Repeal the Governor’s emergency proclamation impacting the OPMA; or
2. Maintain the Governor’s emergency proclamation in place until the COVID-19 emergency is officially declared over.

Both paths carry their own challenges and questions as to their impact on cities’ ability to conduct meetings.

Repeal the Governor’s emergency proclamation

If the Governor decides to repeal the OPMA emergency proclamation or end the declared COVID-19 emergency on June 30, cities would be required to resume in-person public meetings under the OPMA. This would mean a city would need to provide an in-person location for each meeting where members of the public could attend, hear the proceedings, and be heard. However, in addition to in-person access, cities could choose to continue providing remote access.

Cities would need to follow regional and county health directives regarding mask wearing and public gatherings.

Maintain the Governor’s emergency proclamation in place until the COVID-19 emergency is officially declared over

If the Governor chooses to maintain the emergency proclamation on public meetings, cities will need to continue to provide remote access to those meetings. If a city decides to hold in-person meetings, the city will be required to following the Miscellaneous Venues COVID-19 Requirements, published by the state. MRSC provides the following overview of the guidance as of June 2:

In the current version of this guidance, fully vaccinated attendees (i.e., two weeks past the date of their second Pfizer/Moderna vaccine or their single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine) are not required to wear a face covering or be physically separated from one another. If any attendees are not fully vaccinated and there is not a separate section for fully vaccinated people, capacity is limited to 50% capacity or 1,000 people, whichever is smaller.

However, venues may exceed 50% indoor capacity if there is a separate section for fully vaccinated people, and the occupancy restrictions and physical distancing requirements have been removed entirely if all attendees are vaccinated. Physical distancing is required between sections for fully vaccinated attendees and unvaccinated attendees.

If the agency is providing an in-person component, it must still allow all persons who wish to attend in person to do so. Because non-vaccinated attendees are still required to wear masks, agencies will still have to provide physical separation for those attendees. An agency can provide physical separation for unvaccinated persons by using an overflow room as long as all persons attending the meeting can hear each other at the same time.

If a city chooses to offer an area specifically for fully vaccinated individuals, the city will need to verify each person’s vaccination status. The state’s miscellaneous venue guidance requires visitors to provide proof of vaccination verified by a health care provider and specifically states that, “self-reported vaccination records that are not verified by a health care provider cannot be accepted.”

While things are still uncertain at this point, we encourage cities to look ahead and have plans in place to resume in-person meetings if the Governor’s emergency proclamation is repealed.