Last week, the Legislature passed a concurrent resolution extending the Governor’s emergency orders issued via proclamation during the COVID-19 pandemic until the end of the emergency.
During the pandemic, the Governor issued emergency proclamations allowing cities to hold virtual meetings as well as modifying requirements around public record requests. However, these modifications relied on House and Senate leadership agreeing to extend
the orders every few weeks. This uncertainty created a lot of confusion and concern for city staff and leadership when the emergency orders were extended at the last minute. Emergency orders modifying the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) and the Public
Records Act (PRA) were set to expire on January 19.
SCR
8402, sponsored by Sen. Marko Liias (D–Lynnwood), ensures that the emergency orders remain in place until the COVID-19 state of emergency is lifted and are no longer subject to periodic extensions requiring approval from the House and
Senate. This change will also allow lawmakers more time to review and vote on legislation modifying the OPMA.
SCR 8402 does not require the Governor's signature and goes into effect immediately.