For Kitty Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, what happened on Saturday, July 25, must have felt like a palace coup.<\/p>\n
\tAt the tail end of a four-day meeting of the council in Kona, Simonds had scheduled a discussion on administrative and budget matters.<\/p>\n
\tUnder normal circumstances, it\u2019s a safe bet that most members of the public would have long ago left, their patience having been sorely tried by inane and ridiculous comments of some council members, or their capacity for boredom having been pushed to the limit by tedious PowerPoint presentations.<\/p>\n
\tUnder normal circumstances, the discussions of council administrative and budget issues might just as well be held in closed session, for all the attention the public pays.<\/p>\n
\tBut July\u2019s meeting was, so far as this part of the council\u2019s agenda was concerned, anything but normal. It was the first meeting of Wespac since the Government Accountability Office issued its long-awaited report last May on the council\u2019s operations. And while that report stopped short of confirming the worst suspicions of many council critics about Simonds\u2019 management, it kindled interest among certain council observers in agenda items that stray far from the more customary discussions of the health of fish stocks or presentations on the number of active boats in American Samoa\u2019s fledgling longline fleet.<\/p>\n
\tCouncil chairman Sean Martin called the council to order shortly after 11 a.m. on that Saturday. He and others apparently thought the remainder of the agenda could be dealt with in short order, announcing to members that lunch would be available for them in the neighboring council staff room at the conclusion of the meeting.<\/p>\n
\tWith that, he let Simonds have the floor.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cTwo sets of financial reports have been distributed,\u201d Simonds said. \u201cOne is a short version, with line items and totals. The other is a bit more detailed, with staff travel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAs you know,\u201d she continued, \u201cthis is the last year of our five-year grant.\u201d The council receives all its funds through a process of applying for and receiving grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The process of developing a new five-year budget began last year, Simonds said. Now, \u201cwhat you have is a draft budget with numbers, and what [the National Marine Fisheries Service] suggested to the councils is that we do a 5 to 10 percent increase every year. We don\u2019t know what we\u2019re going to get\u2026 This budget is based on what the administration asked Congress for in 2010\u2026. [It] describes the work we plan to do based on our history.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAt that point, a member of the audience asked why no copies of the budget were available for the public to review.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe want the council members to review the document first,\u201d Simonds said. \u201cIt\u2019s a draft document.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tShe then went on to impress on council members the importance of quick action in approving the budget. \u201cWe all [council executives] said we were going to send [NMFS] budgets in September because the new year begins in January. The [congressional] conference appears to be working very quickly on appropriations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFormer state Department of Land and Natural Resources administrator Peter Young, who now sits on the council, reminded Simonds that despite her stated desire that council members review the document before giving it to the public, he and other council members had been given no advance copy. \u201cI observed the budget committee\u201d (which met earlier in the week), he said. \u201cThe executive committee was given a budget and discussed it on Wednesday\u2026. There\u2019s a lot of numbers and information in here. And council members who are not members of the budget or executive committee are put at a serious disadvantage when they are not able to get this document in advance of the meeting \u2013 but also when it\u2019s clear that other council members have copies, but not everyone is given one\u2026.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI believe there\u2019s an expectation we\u2019re supposed to vote on it, and have an understanding of what it is we\u2019re voting on. So I can understand the frustration of the public, not even being able to get a copy of it, but I wanted to express my frustration, disappointment, and disagreement that there are two classes of council members with respect to getting the information.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tLaura Thielen, who sits on the council by virtue of her position as current DLNR administrator, announced she wanted \u201ctime to look through the materials\u201d \u2013 at which point Simonds dramatically rolled her eyes.<\/p>\n
\tBut Thielen persevered. She quickly pointed out that categories such as \u201cinternational management,\u201d \u201cpolicy development,\u201d and \u201coutreach\u201d contained big increases over previous years. \u201cThis is a lot of information,\u201d she said. \u201cCan we have some time to read through this and come back at the next meeting and have some comment and discussion?\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSimonds was thrown off by Thielen\u2019s question: \u201cWhere are you?\u201d she asked, not knowing what pages in the inch-thick document Thielen was referring to.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe multiyear summary, fiscal year `09 to fiscal year 15,\u201d Thielen responded.<\/p>\n
\tSimonds was dismissive: \u201cStart with the administration [budget of] $2.7 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThielen could not find Simonds\u2019 starting point.<\/p>\n
\tAfter several moments of discussion and murmurs among the council members and staff, it emerged that not all council members had been given the same documents.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThis illustrates the point,\u201d Thielen then said. \u201cWe have a lot of information here. I want a chance to look through it and I want a chance to ask questions before we approve it. Is this multiyear summary I have \u2013 is that the proposal the council is making? If that\u2019s the case, it doesn\u2019t correlate with the information you just said.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSimonds tried again: \u201cWhat you\u2019re looking at here is supposed to be a 10 percent increase annually, on the advice of NMFS. Unless we know the cost for something is different.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThielen: \u201cIf I\u2019m told I get a 10 percent increase in my total budget, I don\u2019t just do a 10 percent across-the-board\u201d increase.<\/p>\n
\tAt that point, the council took a break so its staff could scramble to get all members copies of the same documents. Afterward, Young chimed in to support Thielen: \u201cI support Laura\u2019s statement about the need for more time\u2026. I think it\u2019s unreasonable to expect that we would be able to vote on it today before lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cLaura, so how much time do you think you need?\u201d Simonds asked Thielen. (Simonds earlier had instructed Young not to speak to her.) \u201cWhat are you asking for?\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI\u2019d like an opportunity to read through the materials and then come back with the questions. And make sure we \u2013”<\/p>\n
\tSimonds interrupted, announcing that the council would \u201cneed to have a teleconference on the five-year budget some time in the next week,\u201d seeming to ride roughshod over Federal Notice<\/i> requirements for such meetings.<\/p>\n
\tThere followed a lengthy discussion of whether members of the public could be trusted not to confuse budget documents clearly stamped \u201cDRAFT\u201d with final budgets. According to Fred Tucher, general council for the Pacific Islands Regional Office of NMFS, the council could choose to make any document it wanted public, so long as legal prohibitions on release of confidential or proprietary data were not breached. Martin noted that before the council could take any action to approve the budget, \u201cwe have to have public comment\u201d \u2013 which in turn implied that, at some point, sooner or later, the public would need to see what the council was voting upon.<\/p>\n
\tIn the end, the council decided to put off any further discussion of the budget until members had been given sufficient time to review it. After the motion was made, Thielen suggested an amendment: \u201cI would add that the materials, upon distribution to council members, also be posted publicly for review during the discussion of that meeting\u2026 Draft materials for this meeting should be distributed and made available for the public no later than two weeks before the conference call.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tMartin again expressed his reservations: \u201cAlthough documents may clearly be marked as draft documents, there is a potential for misinterpretation of those draft documents prior to them being formalized.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThielen pressed her point harder: \u201cAll we\u2019re looking at in this motion is giving the council members time to receive the accurate information on the budget we\u2019re being asked to vote on, giving us enough time prior to having that publicly noticed meeting to make a decision, to inform ourselves \u2013 and also making that information available to people who are going to listen in on that publicly noticed meeting. That\u2019s all that\u2019s in the motion\u2026.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhat we\u2019ve found \u2026 in Hawai`i, is that unless you give the public information, there is a cloud over the council members, and it is very difficult for any of us to be able to defend ourselves against accusations of wrongful misconduct. There are two reasons for having public information out there. One is so that the public trusts the public process. The other is to protect the volunteers who serve on these councils and boards and commissions by providing that transparency so they can say, \u2018I followed that process.\u2019 If someone objects, they can say that.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThere have been a lot of questions about how this council makes decisions\u2026 I very strongly believe we should have these materials available to the public\u2026 Putting them on the website is a very good way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBy that time, Thielen had either persuaded or worn down most of the other council members. (Simonds had left the room long before the matter came to a vote.)<\/p>\n
\tBut it was left to Guam council member Manny Duenas to voice a last, desperate \u2013 and bizarre \u2013 argument against the proposal of Thielen and others that council materials be made available online. The motion, he said, \u201cis highly discriminatory to the people of Guam. They\u2019re not technologically literate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tDespite the stated concerns of Martin and Duenas, the motion passed unanimously.<\/p>\n
July\u2019s meeting gave the council its first opportunity to discuss the report issued last May by the Government Accountability Office on the operations of Wespac and allegations of mismanagement. Most of that discussion concerned the GAO\u2019s criticism that the council\u2019s operations were not transparent to the public.<\/p>\n
The advisory measures in the report were directed to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, not to the council, which technically is a contractor to NOAA. On July 13, William Robinson, administrator of the Pacific Islands Regional Office of NOAA\u2019s National Marine Fisheries Service, transmitted to council chairman Sean Martin recommendations based on the GAO\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n
\tFirst, with respect to reports that Wespac and its director, Simonds, were overstepping federal limits on lobbying activities, Robinson instructed the council \u201cto maintain documentation of all requests for information from federal and state legislators.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSecond, with respect to reports that council staff or contractors were handing out cash in white envelopes to participants at certain council-sponsored meetings, Robinson told Martin that the council must pay per-diem costs by check \u201cto the extent practicable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThird, to improve \u201ctransparency of the council\u2019s actions,\u201d Robinson proposed that the council undertake five separate measures:<\/p>\n
\tThe GAO report had noted that materials in council briefing books (which can be hundreds of pages long) are routinely placed on the websites of other fishery management councils, while briefing materials at Wespac meetings are available to the public only during the portion of the agenda in which the materials are being discussed \u2013 and only some of those materials, at that.<\/p>\n
\tAlthough Simonds indicated that this problem would be addressed when the new IT person on the council\u2019s staff got up to speed, it turned out that all the briefing materials were in fact available online \u2013 but only to council members, on a password-protected website.<\/p>\n
\tCouncil member Peter Young pointed out that it would have been a simple matter to make the materials available online to the public, \u201cbut we made it password-protected. The only people who had access were the members. We ended up killing trees because we have to distribute copies at the meeting. We had a great opportunity to demonstrate to the public that we could [be more transparent], but we didn\u2019t. And to add further insult, we didn\u2019t even distribute to members documents at the time they were available.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tOther council members remarked on how convenient it was to have all the council materials available on their laptops during the meeting. David Itano said, \u201cI have a hard time getting my hands on the right piece of paper, but when I have the documents on the computer, I can go through them. I prefer this\u2026 I can flip through my screen and get what I want.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tDon Palawski, representing the Fish and Wildlife Service, agreed.<\/p>\n
\tOnly Manny Duenas dissented. \u201cI, for one, like paper\u2026. I get insulted because people are on computers\u201d during the meeting, he said, since he has seen members playing video games or watching sports channels.<\/p>\n
\tRegardless of whether or how quickly the council complies with the request that it put more information on its website, it seems clear that the public will finally be able to have online access to critical council records in the near future. In his letter forwarding GAO recommendations to the council, PIRO administrator Robinson announced that by December 1, his office was intending to post meeting minutes and other council records on its own website (www.fpir.noaa.gov).<\/p>\n
\t\u201cNMFS will include procedures for submitting a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request for NMFS and council records on this website\u201d as well, Robinson said.<\/p>\n
— Patricia Tummons<\/p>\n
Volume 20, Number 3 September 2009<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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