Following outcry from professional journalist groups and Oregon news publishers, Gov. Tina Kotek is considering vetoing a bill passed last month by the state Legislature that makes changes to the state’s public meetings law.
Kotek on Thursday did her final signings for all but one bill, House Bill 4177. In a news release Friday she said she is considering a veto of the bill, which would be her only veto of laws passed by the Oregon Legislature in the most recent session that adjourned on March 6.
Kotek has 30 days to sign a bill if it was delivered to her after adjournment, and must announce any plan to veto a bill at least five days before filing her decision deadline, which is April 17. A two-thirds vote of both houses can override a governor’s veto.
In a statement, a Kotek spokesperson wrote: “The Governor understands the intent of the legislation, however she is considering a veto because of concerns that parts of the bill may undermine transparency in the conducting of public business.”
The bill was backed by city and county governments and associations and school boards who wanted to provide clarity on a 2023 law that changed Oregon public meetings law, prohibiting public officials from deliberating and deciding measures via text, phone call and other chain conversations to circumvent state public meetings law.
House Bill 4177 exempts from the meetings law such “serial communications” if they are “made for the purpose of gathering information relating to a decision that will be deliberated upon or made by the governing body.”
Bill proponents said it was needed to clarify that public officials aren’t violating state law when they text an article related to an issue to one another, or share their opinion with a reporter ahead of a vote, who then shares that opinion with other members of the governing body in the course of the reporting.
But the Oregon chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Oregon News Publishers Association, The Oregonian and roughly a dozen small publishers, called on Kotek to veto the bill. They warned throughout the session that it fundamentally redefined what constitutes meetings and deliberations in a way that would allow public officials to do important work in private with little transparency.
During the session, leaders from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission — tasked with enforcing the public meetings law — shared testimony expressing many of the same concerns as the press advocates.
State lawmakers passed it anyway, vowing to come back in 2027 to make fixes that might be needed.
Note: Oregon Capital Chronicle Editor Julia Shumway is board treasurer of the Greater Oregon Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, which requested Kotek veto the bill referenced in this article. Shumway did not participate in the editing of this item.