Thought you guys would like to see a letter I received in response to one I sent to Director Unsworth about the Open Meetings issue. Director Unsworth passed it off to the Fish Programs Asst. Director. Here is his response:

FishProgram.AssistantDirector@dfw.wa.gov


Dear Mr. Menchaca:


Thank you for your email to Director Unsworth regarding North of Falcon fishery planning and your interest in opening meetings between WDFW and the tribal co-managers to the public.  The Director forwarded your email to the Fish Program for a response.   There has been more interest than usual this year in the process, and in opening co-manager meetings to the public, due largely to the delays in reaching agreement with the tribes on fisheries in Puget Sound this year.
WDFW is committed to transparency, and undertakes an extensive public rule-making process for setting North of Falcon salmon fisheries each year, following and exceeding the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act.  This process includes a long list of public meetings, and involves extensive communication between agency staff and interested stakeholders regarding status of fishery proposals and progress of negotiations with the tribes.  The majority of the co-manager negotiations happen in a series of meetings with individual tribes or small groups of tribes from single watersheds, with several larger meetings with multiple tribes from around Puget Sound and coastal Washington also occurring.  All public records created during the process are available.  We understand the interest in opening those meetings to the public, but ultimately there are legal obstacles to doing so.
As you are likely aware, the federally-recognized tribes are legally sovereign governments.  As such, tribal governments are not subject to the state’s Administrative Procedures Act, or the Open Public Meetings Act.  As sovereign governments, the tribes are not required to meet with the general public, or to allow the general public into meetings with state government representatives.  In the past, the tribes have allowed a limited number of members of the public to enter state-tribal North of Falcon meetings to observe, but not actively participate in the meetings.  That practice was ended several years ago by the tribes, as they felt the negotiation positions of the state and tribes were being mischaracterized to the rest of the public by these observers.  WDFW will continue to pursue methods like observer attendance for allowing direct public participation in co-manager meetings, but would ultimately need agreement of the tribes for this to happen
We also ultimately need to reach agreement with the tribal co-managers on fishing seasons that meet conservation objectives in order to receive Federal authorization for fisheries under the Endangered Species Act – the effects of tribal and non-tribal fishing combined must be within acceptable impact levels on all stocks.  There is also the long and complicated legal history of the US v Washington court case that must be considered in setting salmon seasons.  The reality is that meetings and negotiations with the tribal co-managers must occur for fishing seasons to be set – not meeting with the tribes because they do not agree to let the public into the meetings would not likely lead to a productive outcome for state fisheries. 
Many of the perceived issues with co-management of fisheries are the result of the shared interest of state and tribal fishermen in protecting and harvesting a resource that has diminished from historic levels due to deterioration of habitat.  We support co-management of the state’s shared resources and believe the state and tribes are far more effective when we work together to conserve fish and wildlife and their habitat. WDFW remains committed to working with the tribes to improve the North of Falcon process, to working to make that process as transparent as possible, and to helping to ensure our state’s resources are sustainable for future generations.