Here's a look at the state's Open Public Meetings Act

Washington's Open Public Meetings Act is intended to ensure that the deliberations and actions of public bodies are conducted openly.

"The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them," the law declares. "The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created."

The law defines "action" as the transaction of the business of a public body, including: receipt of public testimony, deliberations, discussions, considerations, reviews, evaluations and final actions. "Final action," under the law, means a collective positive or negative decision, or an actual vote by a majority of the members of a governing body, on a motion, proposal, resolution, order or ordinance. No law, resolution or directive may be approved in a meeting closed to the public, according to the law.

The law permits public bodies to convene executive sessions, in which the public is excluded, for specific and narrow purposes. Such purposes include discussions of a minimum price at which real estate will be offered for sale or lease; discussions of litigation or potential litigation (the definition of "potential litigation" includes litigation that has been specifically threatened or litigation the agency reasonably believes may be launched by or against the agency); and discussions to evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for public employment or to review the performance of a public employee.

The Columbian's three-day series isn't the first time the newspaper has challenged the Port of Vancouver's practices under the open public meetings law.

In previous reports, open-government advocates, experts in the law and representatives of the state Attorney General's Office have raised concerns about the newspaper's findings. In April 2011, for example, the newspaper, after obtaining public documents, revealed port officials had apparently violated the law by discussing in private the process by which they would select a new executive director. A process matter like that, said Tim Ford, then the open government ombudsman for the state Attorney General's Office, "should have been discussed in public."

Ford said a state Supreme Court decision, Miller v. Tacoma, emphasized that only action explicitly spelled out by an exemption to the open meetings law may occur in a meeting closed to the public.

In a November 2014 story, The Columbian challenged the port on its use of an executive session on April 9, 2013. The stated purpose of that closed meeting was to discuss a minimum price for land the port would lease or sell for the oil terminal. However, documents obtained by the newspaper showed commissioners received a pitch from company executives, covering a wide range of topics that filled a 51-page slide presentation.

At the newspaper's request, Michele Earl-Hubbard, a widely recognized expert in Washington's sunshine laws, reviewed the slide presentation and other documents. She said it doesn't matter that commissioners, after meeting behind closed doors on April 9, later received public testimony and took a final vote on the oil terminal lease in public. The public has the right to see how a governing body's vote was influenced, Earl-Hubbard said, including "all of the people who talked to you leading up to that vote."

-- Aaron Corvin