If two Deschutes County commissioners meet in the hallway and talk about public business, they are violating the state’s open meetings law.

That peculiar situation results from the Deschutes County Commission having only three members, so a meeting of two represents a quorum. The law requires such a meeting be open to the public with 24-hour notice.

Phil Henderson, the commission’s newest member, complained this week that the situation hampers effective communication among commissioners. For example, he said at a retreat Tuesday that he hadn’t known fellow Commissioner Tony DeBone signed letters expressing county support for a grant application for U.S. Highway 97 improvements.

To allow effective communication, Henderson suggested exploring ways to share information without violating the law. Unfortunately, he compared it to driving 60 mph in a 55 mph zone, which he described as technically illegal but generally accepted.

Henderson identified a real problem, and his frustration is understandable, but stretching the law is the same as violating it, and clearly the wrong way to go. His fellow commissioners and the county’s legal counsel said as much during Tuesday’s conversation.

We suggest two possible solutions, one far more complex and cumbersome than the other:

• Establish a standing meeting, noticed on a continuing basis, for a brief get-together every other day or even every day. If there’s nothing to discuss, it won’t last long, just a brief interruption to create the opportunity to fill each other in on what each commissioner has been up to.

• Change the county charter to create a five-member commission, all part-time. The idea has been floated in the past and has numerous benefits beyond solving the open meetings law problem of two commissioners conversing. A broader range of candidates could compete because the positions would be part-time, and commissioners would be policymakers and not day-to-day managers, among other benefits.

In the meantime, commissioners must continue to adhere to the letter as well as spirit of the open meetings law, despite its inconveniences.