As far as improving transparency. I encourage the Commission to take a very hard look at their "delegations" in the future. We have submitted a petition to the Commission to convert the NOF policy into a WAC (Washington Administrative Code) That would then make it a law and not just advisory. They then could write into the WAC more stringent oversight of the Department and include language for greater transparency. The Board will discuss this on a conference call on 2 February, no public input. I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE EVERYONE to write an email to the Commission board members and ask them to vote YES on converting the Policy to a WAC! You can read the reply letter from the Board on our facebook page.

It's interesting to note that the confidentiality clause for the mediation process, 1. Was waiverable, but they chose to keep it. and 2. It did not prevent WDFW from sharing details with the Commissioners. Senior Staff at WDFW chose to keep the Commission out of it, because the Commission is liable to open public meetings laws, and WDFW did not want the public to have any information about what they were agreeing to! If you want to find out more about this issue I invite you to look at our Facebook page Open North of Falcon
Or if you have any questions, you can reach us at: OpenNOF@gmail.com