"Mike Fancher, president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government, said the organization's board had authorized a lawsuit if executives deem it necessary — a decision leaders are hoping to make in the coming week. For his part, Fancher called a lawsuit 'likely.'

"'We do believe that the process that they used was in violation of the Open Meetings Act,' he told the Emerald. "'Presumably, the remedy for that would be to invalidate the actions of the commission.'

For its part, the state Supreme Court order says explicitly that the court 'has not evaluated and does not render any opinion on the plan's compliance with any statutory and conditional requirements other than the November 15 deadline.'

The obstacle public meetings issue could have been avoided if the state Supreme Court had scrapped the commission's plan and created one of its own, as state law seemed to require. Instead, advocates are now setting their sights on what they see as a flawed work product, noting that commission members spent much of the Nov. 15 meeting in private discussions.

"'If you have an invalid process, then you have an invalid outcome,' Fancher said. 'The whole idea of the Open Meetings Act is that the public has a right to witness not only the final vote of a public agency but the deliberative process. That's where public trust is born.'"