A disturbing and yet farcical thing happened on Aug. 23 at SJC headquarters. A County Council Sub-committee of Jamie Stephens, Richard Fralick and Rich Peterson met with Richard J. Busch, President of the Pacific Northwest Wireless Association, an industry group. My friend Michael and I went over to listen in, but we were not allowed in! At first glance, that’s an unimportant bureaucratic detail, but this meeting was just the type required to be open to the public by the Washington State Open Public Meetings Act (RCW Chapter 42) and also that minutes be kept and made available.

The Open Public Meetings Act is a bright spot in Washington state law – a real pro-democracy piece of legislation. It was a response to Skagit County’s Planning Commission meeting privately with the proponents of building an aluminum smelter on Guemes Island and the County Commissioners subsequent approval of the necessary zoning change without taking public comment. In 1971 this was still considered intolerable behavior and the OPMA was the result.

Even though it’s common, it’s still a serious erosion of democracy when laws are violated by local government officials. Sure, there are lots of bad laws, but consider thi: the opposite of the rule of law isn’t anarchy, or chaos, or the “free market” – it’s thuggery – and worse. We saw some of that on Tuesday. We’ll never know what deals were made at that meeting, or how it will affect our exposure to the new cell tower ordinance the county council is working on now. The remedy? Still, as always, organized resistance. You can’t vote your way out of this.

Steve Ludwig

Lopez Island