Enhanced transparency and information sharing are
needed to restore and maintain public trust and support for management of Grays
Harbor salmon fisheries.

It is written in the purpose section of the Grays Harbor (C-3621)
policy.

Sent another email. They're gonna' get tired of hearing from me.

Not sure if this goes with this thread..... Here is the response that I received from Senior Assistant Attorney General Joseph Shorin


Thank you for your message to Attorney General Bob Ferguson relating to the development of the Puget Sound Chinook Harvest Management Plan. Your message expresses concern that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), with legal assistance from the Attorney General’s Office, developed the plan out of the public’s view.

Washington State has a history of strong open government, as evidenced by enactment of the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), RCW 42.30, and the Public Records Act, RCW 42.56. As applies to WDFW, the OPMA applies to meetings of the multi-member Fish and Wildlife Commission, and requires their meetings to be open to the public, except for narrow circumstances specified in the law. The OPMA does not require meetings held by the director or his staff be held in public. The Public Records Act, in contrast, applies equally to the Director and the Fish and Wildlife Commission. That law generally requires that public records be made available for inspection and copying. However, there are exceptions to the requirement for disclosure of public records as well. Records of communications during a court-monitored mediation are expressly exempted from disclosure pursuant to RCW 42.56.600.

WDFW’s director and staff and the tribes developed the Puget Sound Chinook Harvest Management Plan under the administration of a federal-court administered mediation as part of the court’s continuing jurisdiction in the ongoing U.S. v. Washington litigation. Under federal court Local Rule 39.1(A)(6), mediations are confidential unless otherwise required by law or agreed by the litigants. So in this case, while Washington State law, through provisions such as the Open Public Meetings Act and the Public Records Act, expresses a general public policy of open government, no law prohibited development of the Plan in a closed door setting, and there was no general agreement among the tribal and state co-managers to develop the plan in a public setting. Nonetheless, the co-managers did agree, and the court ordered, that only those documents that a party affirmatively marks as confidential will be treated as confidential, and that they do not intend to treat as confidential communications to or from the National Marine Fisheries Service, which will be considering the proposed plan as part of its permitting process under the federal Endangered Species Act.

As you note in your message, the mission of the Attorney General’s Office is to provide excellent, independent, and ethical legal services to the State of Washington and protect the rights of its people. An important component of our execution on that mission is to provide individual public officials and state agencies options based legal advice, while being mindful that the Attorney General’s Office, led by a statewide elected public official, serves the broader public interest of all the citizens. The Attorney General’s Office does not set fisheries policy for the State, nor determine how those policies will be developed. We counsel our clients on how they may lawfully pursue their objectives and the legal implications of various choices. Sometimes, as here, those choices are complicated by ongoing processes with a legal dimension, such as the court-directed mediation governing the development of the Plan.

I am very familiar with the legal support that this office provided to WDFW staff and the Fish and Wildlife Commission in relation to development of the Plan. I have full confidence that it represented the highest degree of excellence, independence and ethical conduct, and recognition of the public interest in open government, that are the hallmark of the work of Attorney General’s Office.

Sincerely,

Joseph Shorin
Senior Assistant Attorney General
Chief, Fish, Wildlife and Parks Division
1125 Washington Street SE
P.O. Box 40100
Olympia, WA 98504-0100
Phone: 360-753-2496
Fax: 360-586-3454
Email: Josephs@atg.wa.govorney General Joseph Shorin.

To clarify I will not be suing them, my response was to Baywolf to forward my emails.