Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon v. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757

368 P.3d 50, 276 Or. App. 513, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 191
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedFebruary 18, 2016
Docket121215684; A154561
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 368 P.3d 50 (Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon v. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon v. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, 368 P.3d 50, 276 Or. App. 513, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 191 (Or. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

LAGESEN, P. J.

This appeal arises from a declaratory judgment action under ORS 28.010. Plaintiff, the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet), sought a declaration that the collective bargaining sessions between TriMet’s negotiating team and the bargaining unit for TriMet employees, defendant, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), are not subject to Oregon’s Public Meetings Law, ORS 192.610 to 192.695. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the trial court ruled in favor of TriMet, concluding that the undisputed facts established as a matter of law that the bargaining sessions between TriMet’s negotiating team and ATU were not “meetings” as that term is defined in the Public Meetings Law and, therefore, were not within the scope of the Public Meetings Law. Although we agree with the trial court that the undisputed facts establish as a matter of law that the sessions between TriMet’s negotiating team and ATU are not “meetings” for purposes of the Public Meetings Law, we vacate and remand to the trial court for further consideration, in the light of our recent decision in Handy v. Lane County, 274 Or App 644, 362 P3d 867 (2015), rev allowed, 358 Or 550 (2016). In the light of that decision, we are unable to conclude as a matter of law that the Public Meetings Law does not apply to those sessions simply because — as the trial court correctly concluded — those sessions are not “meetings.”

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Public Meetings Law

As this case centers on the application of Oregon’s Public Meetings Law to the bargaining sessions between TriMet and ATU, we start by providing an overview of that law. The purpose of the Public Meetings Law is to ensure government transparency in Oregon:

“The Oregon form of government requires an informed public aware of the deliberations and decisions of governing bodies and the information upon which such decisions were made. It is the intent of ORS 192.610 to ORS 192.690 that decisions of governing bodies be arrived at openly.”

[516]*516ORS 192.620. To that end, the law regulates the decision-making process of "governing bodfies]” of “public bod[ies].” A “public body” is any governmental body in Oregon, including a “committee or subcommittee or advisory group or any other agency” of a larger governmental body. ORS 192.610(4).1 A “governing body” consists of the “members of any public body which consists of two or more members, with the authority to make decisions for or recommendations to a public body on policy or administration.” ORS 192.610(3).

The law ensures transparency in government primarily through two complementary mechanisms. Both mechanisms are contained in ORS 192.630. First, ORS 192.630(1) requires that any “meeting” of a governing body of a public body be open to the public, unless the topic of the meeting is one that the legislature has said may be addressed in an “executive session” or the meeting is of the sort that is exempted from the Public Meetings Law under ORS 192.690.2 ORS 192.630(1); ORS 192.660; ORS 192.690. A “meeting” is a “convening of a governing body of a public body for which a quorum is required in order to make a decision or to deliberate toward a decision on any matter.” ORS 192.610(5). An “executive session” is “any meeting or part of a meeting of a governing body which is closed to certain persons for deliberation on certain matters.” ORS 192.610(2). ORS 192.660 regulates governing bodies’ use of executive sessions and identifies the subjects that a governing body may consider in executive session.

Second, ORS 192.630(2) restricts the ability of the members of a governing body to meet outside of the context of a formal “meeting” in order to deliberate or make a decision: “A quorum of a governing body may not meet in private for the purpose of deciding on or deliberating toward a decision on any matter except as otherwise provided by ORS 192.610 to 192.690.” ORS 192.630(2). The net effect of those [517]*517two mechanisms is that a quorum of a governing body cannot meet to deliberate or make a decision in private unless ORS 192.660 authorizes it to do so in an executive session of a meeting or if ORS 192.690 otherwise excludes the governing body from the application of the Public Meetings Law. See Handy, 274 Or App at 659 (“The legislature was not content to require that ‘meetings’ be made open to the public; rather, to achieve the statutory purpose, the legislature felt the need to regulate the conduct of public officials in less formal settings.”).

B. This Dispute

Although the record evidences some significant factual disputes — the main one relating to whether TriMet’s negotiating team qualifies as a “governing body” for purposes of the Public Meetings Law — those disputes, except as otherwise indicated, do not bear on the legal issues presented on appeal. The facts that pertain to those issues are largely undisputed.

TriMet is a mass transit district and municipal corporation of the State of Oregon. ORS 267.010 - 267.430. TriMet is governed by a board of directors (the board). ORS 267.120.

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368 P.3d 50, 276 Or. App. 513, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tri-county-metropolitan-transportation-district-of-oregon-v-amalgamated-orctapp-2016.