Port of Longview commissioners on Friday rejected the longshore union’s claim that they violated the state’s open meetings act last summer when they forbade trespassing on railroad tracks where hundreds were later arrested while protesting the EGT grain terminal.
The union’s claim is an attempt to defend some of those protesters from prosecution, and union lawyers say they may take the matter to court.
At issue is the commissioners’ July 26 vote on a no-trespassing zone around the port’s rail line. That vote by commissioners Darold Dietz and Bob Bagaason took place in a parking area in the area of the port’s Barlow Point property in West Longview, which they had just toured. An advance public notice of the meeting stated that no action would be taken during that commission meeting.
Union attorneys said the circumstances of the vote violated the state’s open meetings law, which is meant to make sure public business is open to the public.
In a letter to Randolph, ILWU attorney Rob Lavitt said the union is considering suing the port and Dietz and Bagaason personally to overturn the no trespassing policy.