Finally, after about an hour and a half of misinformation from the spill proponents, I asked him for permission to speak on the ground that the proponents had been talking for nearly 30 straight minutes and had said many things that weren't true. I told him that it would be a good thing for the Commission to know what the misrepresentations were. He angrily refused. The other commissioners looked askance at him, but did not overturn his decision to silence me. This is typical of how policy is set in administrative proceedings in the Pacific Northwest.
Administrative agencies stage meetings before their governing bodies.
By picking who is allowed to talk to the governing body, and for how long, the staff of the agency can very significantly influence the outcome. It is the same story in Congress. Most of the witnesses at Congressional hearings are carefully-selected agency officials or lobbyists. As the Chairman called for a vote on the hatchery program, Commissioners Whipple and Lorenzen voted against it. Commissioner McMahan, who had also declared that she felt misled by fishery agencies, voted for the plan, but only because she said she thought it would help endangered salmon.