At two Seattle City Council hearings, a Capitol Hill Community Council hearing, and a community-sponsored hearing at the Seattle Vocational Technical Institute, the public gave over 24 hours of testimony on the events surrounding the 1999 WTO Ministerial Conference. Mayor Paul Schell was quoted as saying that they were organized by the Direct Action Network and "if you heard one testimonial you heard them all." However, this overwhelming outcry on the part of the community has resulted in Seattle City Council Resolution 30100, passed on December 6, 1999, which established the WTO Accountability Review Committee.

Original media reports indicated that there would be four panels created to investigate the events surrounding the WTO conference. Panel #1, which was commissioned to review the welcoming of the WTO to Seattle, was assigned to council member Jan Drago. Panel #2 was given to Nick Licata, and its task has been to investigate planning and preparation prior to the conference. Council member Jim Compton was appointed head of Panel #3 and was given the chairmanship of the entire review process. Panel #3 is the most politically sensitive of the panels, since it concentrates on what happened in the streets from November 30 to December 4, 1999. Panel #4, which was supposed to investigate civil rights abuses, was never formed. These three council members chose panelists to serve on the committee, and the WARC was born.

Questions regarding conflicts of interest and the lack of political will to establish accountability were raised from the very beginning of the process. Reporter Marty McOmber wrote an article in the Seattle Times on January 26, 2000, in which he claimed that the WTO review was not a "full-blown investigation." In a December 27, 1999, article Seattle Weekly editor Knute Berger wrote that it "isn't even an investigation."

Concerned members of the community formed a public interest watchdog group, the Committee For Local Government Accountability (CLGA), to keep an eye on the city's review and to provide input and public oversight. Serious discussions followed between panelists and council members as to whether public input and comment would be allowed during their meetings. It was clear that, until the CLGA showed up at their meetings, WARC members had no intention of opening up the process.

Eventually, panel #1 allowed members of the CGLA to participate by allowing for a public comment period on the agenda for each meeting. Panel #2 also allowed public comment, but to a more limited degree at first. Later, panel #2 chairman Dr. Carl Livingston would admit that the CLGA has provided "valuable information and input" to the process. Some CLGA members credit panel #2 and Nick Licata, Dr. Livingston, and Norma Kelsey as the only effective liaisons between the citizens' committee and WARC.

Dr. Livingston, however, actually threatened to resign early on in the process because he felt that turning over too much of the process to city staff would result in an incomplete and biased investigation. He was promptly replaced as facilitator of panel #2 by a city employee, who continues to add her opinions to the report despite the fact that she is not a panel member.

Jim Compton's panel #3 has been the least cooperative in terms of public input and oversight. There have been several instances where members of the community and media were forced to leave the room so that the panel could hold executive sessions. Compton has claimed that this is necessary due to the fact that law enforcement officers would not grant interviews with members of the public present. However, executive meetings have been called when no police were present. Members of the CGLA have also been detained by security while trying to attend what were supposed to be public meetings. Compton's panel continues to meet behind closed doors with no public oversight.

As a member of CLGA I have met with Ralph Nader and consulted with the Center For Citizen Advocacy in Illinois, one of the many public interest institutes he has founded. We have also met with representative of the Washington State Human Rights Commission Don Alexander, State Senator from California Tom Hayden, and Seattle City Council Civil Rights Committee Chairman Peter Steinbrueck to discuss possible responses to what we consider to be a closed investigation. We have studied the Washington State Public Disclosure Act [RCW Chapter 42.17.251(1992c 139)] and laws pertaining to open public meetings. An honest attempt has been made on our part to cooperate and participate in the investigation.

A series of letters were sent to Compton and WARC along with a list of 36 questions about unanswered questions regarding the WTO Ministerial Conference and the WARC process.

We have seen no efforts to investigate the claims of human rights abuses inside the King County Jail. The city still seems to be unwilling to admit that there were major injuries caused by police brutality and the improper use of potentially lethal crowd control devices. There has been a lack of full disclosure by WARC panel #3 and the Seattle Police Department. Law enforcement, corporate representatives, and government officials have been less than candid during WARC interviews. We still do not know the full extent of the influence of federal agencies on decisions made by Mayor Paul Schell to declare an unwarranted civil emergency.

A petition with 500 signatures was delivered to Jim Compton and WARC. Ron Judd, who is currently Western Regional Field Organizer for the AFL-CIO, added his signature to the list after he was interviewed by panel #2. The petition demands that WARC investigate violations of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution by government and law enforcement officials during the WTO Ministerial Conference.

After months of ignoring our requests for information, Compton finally met with us in July. Up until that point he had not even bothered to call or e-mail CLGA. We still could not get him to address the issue of bystanders who had been assaulted by police. It has become apparent to us that for reasons of legal liability, certain issues are not going to be discussed. WARC Chief of Staff Alec Fisken has made it clear since the beginning of the investigation that individual acts of police misconduct will not be addressed. In our first meeting, Sally Soriano, Marty Schmidt, and myself were told repeatedly by Fisken that members of the community seeking personal justice were bound to be very disappointed by the city council review. He intentionally attempted to keep our expectations at a minimum.

In late July, members of the CLGA and the Church Council of Greater Seattle Interfaith Committee staged a protest inside the city council chambers during the last public WARC meeting. Media attention on television, radio, and in print helped us to gain some attention for our cause. Civil and class action lawsuits and public protests may be the only way to establish accountability at this point. Although we appreciate the efforts of some of the individual panel members, our faith in the review process has been shaken.

The Citizens' Committee For Local Government Accountability is currently completing a final draft of a report on the WTO conference and WARC. We hope that our efforts will lay the groundwork for future citizen reviews which are truly open, effective, and unbiased.