Gov. Kotek vetoes controversial bill overhauling Oregon public meetings law

Heeding the warning of Oregon media and ethics groups, Gov. Tina Kotek has vetoed a bill that tweaks the state’s public meetings law.

“I’ve heard from people on all sides of this issue – from advocates for transparency to public officials seeking clearer guidance to do their jobs effectively,” Governor Kotek said in a press release announcing the decision Thursday. “While the goal of this bill is important, we must get the details right to ensure Oregonians can trust the government is operating openly and ethically.”

House Bill 4177 was meant to refine a 2023 law that overhauled Oregon public meetings law, with a specific focus on how public officials communicate with each other. Notably, it prohibited officials from discussing potential legislation via “serial communications,” a term for when an official calls or text messages another official who then messages another official and messages another, and so on, as a way to privately discuss public issues as a group.

This rule frustrated elected officials, including Portland city councilors, who argued the phrasing was too vague.

Speaking with OPB in January, Councilor Elana Pirtle-Guiney said the inability to run ideas by councilors through serial communications was limiting.

“If I bring a policy forward, I would like to be able to talk about it with all of my colleagues, think about how I might want to change it and have those conversations about finding consensus,” she told OPB. “But I can’t. That’s hard because it prevents me from iterating and coming up with a better policy.”

The Legislature attempted to fix this with HB 4177 by exempting serial communications “made for the purpose of gathering information related to a decision that will be deliberated upon or made by the governing body.”

Critics called HB 4177 an overcorrection and said it opens the door to corruption and backroom deals.

“We are sympathetic to concerns raised by local officials that recent legal interpretations have complicated their jobs,” said Penny Rosenberg, president of the Oregon chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, in a March statement. But, she added, “this bill essentially guts a law that is foundational to democracy in this state.”

The state’s own ethics commission raised concerns with the bill, writing in a January memo to lawmakers that the legislation would “allow a body to conduct more activities in private and outside of public view,” allowing that body to “bind their constituents to actions their constituents know nothing about.”

The Oregon SPJ, the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, and a dozen Oregon newspaper publishers called on Kotek to veto the bill after the Legislature passed it last month.

In her veto letter, Kotek directed the Oregon Government Ethics Commission to work with lawmakers and stakeholders to deliver a better proposal to the Legislature in 2027.

“I believe there is a way to write the needed changes into law without hindering the public’s right to ethical and transparent government and without undermining the public’s trust in their elected and appointed leaders,” Kotek wrote.

Councilor Eric Zimmerman was one of several Portland councilors who lobbied state lawmakers to adjust the public meetings law this past session. Zimmerman said he agrees with Kotek’s decision, but is eager for lawmakers to “get it right” next year.

“Public meeting laws are foundational to good governance,” Zimmerman said in an email to OPB. “They worked for years, but the way they’re currently being applied has become a roadblock to productive collaboration and decision-making among elected officials.”

This is the only bill Kotek has vetoed from this year’s legislative session.

A two-thirds vote of both chambers of the Legislature can override a governor’s veto.

Editor’s Note: Representatives from Oregon Public Broadcasting testified against House Bill 4177 during the legislative session. They did not participate in the editing of this story.