Shackford Apologies for not Recognizing Brown Act Violation

Shackford Apologies
for not Recognizing
Brown Act Violation

The Editor of the Desert Dispatch was dismissive when the violation was first brought to his attention, after some consideration he realized that the law was violated and that there are even more serious ramifications of the Council’s Transgressions.

Apparently former Barstow Mayor and City Councilman Gil Gurule had contacted Shackford to give him a heads up that while the four members of the Council were supposed to be attending the League of CA Cities Conference in Sacramento, they were actually playing hooky and spending their time lobbying on behalf of Barwest.

The fact that all four members of the Council were meeting behind closed doors in the Governor’s office, lobbying, setting policy, and negotiating upon their special interests was something that Shackford wasn’t interested in when Gurule first brought it to his attention. But after the matter exploded into view at the Council meeting on Sept 17, Shackford had an awakening and to his credit was man enough to offer up an apology. Here is what the paper’s editor had to say on his "Editor's Blog" at DesertDispatch.com:


http://shackford.freedomblogging.com/2007/09/18/who-watches-the-watchdogs/

Who Watches the Watchdogs?

posted by Scott Shackford

September 18th, 2007 ·

It looks like I owe Manuel “Gil” Gurule an apology.

He called me at the end of last week about the casino happenings (and lack thereof) in Sacramento. His intention was to point out to me that the meetings between the governor’s staff and four City Council members may have been a Brown Act violation. The Brown Act is California’s public meeting law, which is intended to make sure that local governmental meetings and decisions (with some exceptions) happen in a public forum, with the community appropriately notified.

I blame casino outrage fatigue for not listening, though it’s really a lousy excuse. City Council members aren’t supposed to gather in large enough numbers to define a quorum — three or more in this case — without public notification of the meeting. Their meeting in Sacramento is most likely a Brown Act violation, though they amended the situation by reporting out the content of the meeting at the subsequent City Council meeting Monday.

I was dismissive of Mr. Gurule’s call, because I’ve grown tired of folks on both sides finding ways to pick pick pick at their opponents and trying to get the newspaper involved. I’ve also been made increasingly aware by our readership that most folks out there don’t care about the squabbling, just the results.

But while this particular Brown Act violation was fairly mild — they were just there to receive information, it appears, not to plan anything — there are potential serious repercussions when this happens. What other meetings could have taken place in Sacramento without our knowledge? Could there have been strategy sessions to deal with opposition to one project? Could they have discussed dumping the city’s agreement with one tribe or the other? These are all potential discussion subjects that are obligated to happen in public.

So I apologize for letting my frustration with the nature of this debate cloud my perception about what is happening in Sacramento. Gurule was absolutely right to be concerned and I appreciate his call, in retrospect.

Desert Dispatch on Barstow's Brown Act Violations

Desert Dispatch on Barstow's Brown Act Violations

Jason Smith, staff writer for the Desert Dispatch covered the September 17 Regular Meeting of the Barstow City Council Meeting. The night was highly focused on Indian gaming due in part because of the timing on the Barwest Compacts dying their last and final death at midnight that same night.

Item # 31 on the Agenda was a lame attempt by four members of the Council to "cure" and clean up their Brown Act Violation from meeting with Cynthia Bryant, Legislative Analysis Assistant for Governor Schwarzenegger. The Council got in a heated debate before I spoke on the subject.

During my comments I brought up the immense Conflict of Interest that they all have and that combined with the Brown Act Violations caused me to file a Complaint with the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Public Integrity Unit earlier that same day. At the end of the meeting, Jason was asking me about the complaint and I gave him a copy of the Complaint I had filed. On the next day, Tuesday, Jason wrote the following article which was scheduled to run in Wednesday's paper.




September 18, 2007 - 5:21PM

Council accused of violating Brown Act over casino meeting Citizen files legal complaint; council reveals details of gathering

By JASON SMITH, staff writer BARSTOW — At its Monday meeting, the City Council disclosed that members held a closed-door meeting earlier this month about the Big Lagoon/Los Coyotes casino compacts, leading some to believe that the council violated California’s open meeting law.

While attending the League of California Cities Conference on Sept. 6., four council members met with Cynthia Bryant, the governor’s deputy chief of staff, who handles Indian gaming issues, to discuss the issues holding back the Barstow casino compacts. City Manager Hector Rodriguez and the city’s Economic Development Manager Ron Rector also attended the meeting. No agenda was posted prior to the meeting as is normally done when more than two council members are present.

Barstow resident and frequent critic of the council, Larry Halstead, announced at the Monday’s council meeting that he had filed a complaint with the Public Integrity Unit of the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office. He accused council members of “corruption” and was upset at what he called city lobbying for a private developer.

“We paid you guys to lobby on behalf of your special interests, that’s what this was,” Halstead said.

The Brown Act, the section of state law which governs how government agencies hold public meetings, states that no more than two council members can gather together outside of a scheduled meeting. Three or more council members at the same meeting would constitute a voting majority and is not allowed under the law except when the event is previously placed on a public agenda or under special circumstances.

Council member Joe Gomez, the only member not to attend the conference, said he was disappointed that the council decided to meet as a group.

Gomez said he chose not to attend the conference because he had attended similar events in the past and said he felt the event was “a waste of taxpayer money.” He accused the Mayor Lawrence Dale of leading the council into violating the Brown Act.

“You clearly led this council, which consists of several new members, to violate the Brown act. … You met without posting a meeting. You met behind closed doors and this clearly violates the Brown Act,” he said.

Council member Julie Hackbarth-McIntyre defended the council’s actions saying that the meeting was not pre-planned and was the result of a last-minute scheduling change

“We had 20 minutes to drop everything to see her,” Hackbarth-McIntyre said.

She said that due to the complexity of the issue and differences of opinions among council members, she felt it was important that all members had the same information.

“There was no vote. We just received information. It was very important for all of us to hear what was discussed by Ms. Bryant,” she said.

Hackbarth-McIntyre said that council members were aware they would have to disclose what was discussed.

“We’re here tonight to let everyone else know what was said and done to cure what went on in that meeting,” she said.

City Attorney Yvette Abich said at Monday’s council meeting that the Sacramento meeting should have been handled differently.

“Should an agenda have been posted? Yes. But it wasn’t. But the Brown Act has a mechanism to cure situations like this,” she said.

She pointed out that the Brown Act has a provision that allows for closed door meetings to be disclosed after the fact, “curing” the violation.

Frank Vanella, Deputy District Attorney with the Public Integrity Unit acknowledged that Larry Halstead’s written complaint of the council’s actions had been received and said his office will review the allegations to determine if further investigation is needed.

He said that assuming the violation was not intentional than a warning would be the most likely penalty that council members would receive. He said that though his office did not keep statistics over Brown Act complaints for individual cities, violations were a common occurrence mostly done by officials unfamiliar with the law.

“There’s a history of Brown Act complaints in almost every city and every board,” he said.

September 17 Council Meeting Showdown

Barstow City Council Meeting
September 17, 2007
The Showdown Over Indian Gaming

For a month now, the September 17, City Council Meeting has been shaping up to be a real show down for several reasons:

1. The Barwest Compacts were scheduled to die their last and final death on the 17th, the same day of the Council Meeting which was guaranteed to turn out the masses on all sides of the issue.

2. The last meeting of the Council was a Special Meeting on August 28 wherein the Mayor was exposed for his unauthorized letter to the Department of the Interior attacking the Chemehuevi and their Ancestral Rights.

3..Then we learned that Tom Shields had been planning a major Barwest media blitz and lobbying effort in the days leading up to Sept 17, to salvage the Compacts that were killed prematurely by the Co-author of the bill, Senator Pat Wiggins who is now under investigation by the FPPC along with Barwest partner Michael Malik for contributing twice the legal allowable limit to her campaign.

4. And finally, it was discovered that the Council (all but Gomez) had gone to Sacramento, on tax payer’s money, under the guise of attending the League of CA Cities, from Sept 5-7. What they did instead was to spend the time lobbying the legislature on behalf of their special interest Barwest. On the 6th they all met with Governor Schwarzenegger’s Deputy Legislative Analysis, Cynthia Bryant. This was a major violation of the Conflict of Interest since every one of them has financial ties to Barwest. Worse still, all of this constitutes the worst case of violations of the Brown Act.

I will be posting more information and commentary soon but I wanted to get a schedule of Relevant Comments and Agenda Item for easy reference. The entire meeting lasted over three hours and most people have neither the time nor the interest to watch the entire meeting. So I have compiled this catalogue here for your convenience.

For assistance on how to watch the meeting on the internet, see my post entitled:

Everything You Need to Know about How-TO do
Barstow Citizen Oversight on the Internet

City Council Meetings can be viewed on: the City's Website Here

Internet Viewing Schedule of Key Items
September 17 Council Meeting
Relevant Comments and Agenda Items

Note-Times for items on the video are given by how far into the meeting they occur and are listed as (hours) : (minutes) : (seconds) For example 2:43:18 would be two hours, forty-three minutes and eighteen seconds into the meeting.

Public Comment Start Time -1:11:25
THIS IS THE TIME AND PLACE FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC TO ADDRESS THE CITY COUNCIL ON MATTERS WITHIN THEIR JURISDICTION THAT ARE NOT CURRENTLY ON THE AGENDA.

1:15:00 Larry D. Halstead
[This is my statement on who I speak for (myself) and who I represent (nobody) when speaking at the Council podium.]


Casino Report Start Time 1:29:30 Finish 2:17:37
Recommended Action: Information Item

1:30:00 to 1:31:40 Chairman Wood of the Chemehuevi Tribe
1:31:45 to 1:54:00 Phil Wyman, Chemehuevi Lobbyist, former State Senator and Assemblyman, and lawyer
[This was a brilliant, definitive presentation on the Ancestral Rights of the Chemehuevi and the political status of Barstow Indian gaming in Sacramento]

1:54:45 to 1:58:25 Katherine Siva Saubel, Los Coyotes
1:58:50 to 2:03:08 Nephew of Katherine Soble, Kevin?
2:03:10 to 2:08:00 Tom Shields, Barwest spin doctor
2:08:00 to 2:11:25 Lance Boldrey, Atty for Barwest
2:11:30 to 2:14:36 Pat Aleman, concerned citizen
2:14:40 to 2:17:37 Larry D. Halstead
[This was my 3 minute lecture on how it is all about Ancestral Rights and why I feel so passionate about it]

Business of the Council Start Time 2:18:30 Finish 2:25:05

2:19:12 to 2:21:23 Councilman Gomez comments about the casino issue

#31 under Business/Action Items Start 2:27:00
City Council Discussion of September 6, 2007 Meeting with Cynthia Bryant, Deputy Chief of Staff and Director For Governor Schwarzenner
Recommended Action: Receive and File

[This was a lame attempt to cure the council’s Brown Act Violations that occurred when four members of the Council met with the Governor’s representative and the conflict of interest involve it was a heated exchange that got into the conflict of interest involved]

2:27:00 to 2:31:35 Mayor Dale
2:31:35 to 2:32:27 City Manager Hector Rodriguez
2:32:30 to 2:41:00 Councilman Gomez with interruptions by Mayor Dale
and Council Member Hackbarth-McIntyre
2:41:05 to 2:44:25 Larry D. Halstead


#14 under Consent Calendar Items Start 3:05:50 Finish 3:10:05
(Pulled from the Consent Calendar by Councilman Gomez)
APPROVAL FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT/RDA MANAGER TO ATTEND THE LEAGUE OF CALIFORNIAN CITIES
Recommended Action: Approve Economic Development/RDA Manager’s trip to Sacramento for September 5 through September 7, 2007.

[This item was put on the agenda to pay for Ron Rector to go to Sacramento over the Sept 5-7 to organize the lobbying effort on behalf of Barwest]

3:05:50 to 3:07:30 Council Discussion of the Item
3:07:38 to 3:10:05 Larry D. Halstead