Opinion ID: 3006469
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: ((Committee thereof'

Text: A committee of a governing body may itself be a governing body if it is a committee thereof. The 1986 AGO opinion reasoned that the word thereof referred to any committee that the governing body creates: The term thereof is defined as: 1: of that: of it ... 2: from that cause: from that particular: Therefrom ...  Webster's Third New 8 Citizens Alliance for Property Rights Legal Fund v. San Juan County, No. 90500-2 International Dictionary 2372 (1971 ). There are two definitions of the word thereof. The first definition would seem to limit the composition of committees to members of the governing body. However, the second definition includes any committee the governing body brings into being. We find nothing in the language of the Act or its legislative history to indicate that the Legislature intended the more restrictive first definition. Also, the policy of the Act and the legislative declaration that the statute be liberally construed support our application of the broader definition of the word thereof. 1986 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 16, at 6-7 (emphasis added) (alterations in original). We agree. Consequently, the key to assessing whether an entity is a committee thereof' with respect to a particular governing body is not whether the _ entity's members are members of the governing body but, rather, whether the entity was created by [the] governing body pursuant to its executive authority .... /d. at 5. Thus, a committee may be composed solely of a minority of the members of the governing body and even of nonmembers of the governing body as long as the governing body created the committee. /d. at 6. 1