I never have liked how the NOF final meetings end with closed doors to the public. I agree that these meetings should be transparent, so sending this example off to many.

RCW 42.30.010
Legislative declaration.
“The legislature finds and declares that all public commissions, boards, councils, committees, subcommittees, departments, divisions, offices, and all other public agencies of this state and subdivisions thereof exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business. It is the intent of this chapter that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.

The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.”

This legislative declaration is not being followed by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) in their salmon allocation negotiations with the state tribes at the yearly North of Falcon (NOF) meetings.

We might have read or listened to media how the tribes took the conservation lead this year to not harvest Coho in Puget Sound because of poor Coho returning projections. What actually happened was that the Tulalip Tribe came out of these highly secretive meetings with a 100% allocation direct Coho fishery according to the List of Agreed Fisheries (LOAF). There is a big difference between conservation and 100% allocation going to one user group--- the Tulalip Tribes.

IMO, this example epitomizes why these illegal clandestine meetings should not exist according to RCW 42.30.010.