Streetcar Workers Demand Open County Meetings
Seattle’s Street Railway Employes’ Union petitions the legislature to force county commissioners to do the public’s business in public, after years of closed-door executive sessions.
At a meeting of the Seattle Street Railway Employes’ Union held on Thursday evening the following resolutions were adopted:
“Whereas, It has been and is customary for the board of county commissioners of King and other counties of this state to hold so-called executive sessions for the transaction of county business, from which the general public have been excluded; now, therefore, be it
“Resolved, by the Street Railway Employes’ Union, of the city of Seattle, Wash., that we do hereby petition the legislature of the state of Washington now in session to pass a law making it mandatory on all boards of county commissioners of the several counties of this state to admit the citizens of this state, if desirous, to all meetings or sessions of such boards for the transaction of public business.
“Resolved, That the secretary of said Street Railway Union be instructed to forward a copy of these resolutions to the legislature and to request the press of said city of Seattle to print a copy of such resolutions.”
“We do hereby petition the legislature ... to admit the citizens of this state ... to all meetings or sessions of such boards for the transaction of public business.”
Open-meetings law is now taken for granted, but in 1895 county commissioners could still retreat into executive session to conduct the public’s business. The streetcar workers’ petition is an early local example of labor using the language of transparency—a fight that resurfaces whenever governments claim a right to deliberate in private.
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