Editorial

Both the Costa Mesa City Council and Planning Commission seem to have

a dilemma -- they’ve forgotten how to run a public meeting. But to us, it

seems easy. It’s all about participatory government and ensuring the

public is kept informed of decisions that affect them.

That noble idea, though, has been lost in a flurry of late-night

meetings and head-scratching decisions being made by these officials.

Case in point, the Planning Commission’s discussion of the Home Ranch

project Sept. 10. The commission limited public comment to those who had

not spoken at a previous meeting.

While it’s great to hear new voices on any matter, that’s not how

things work. During public comment, everyone has the right to speak

during the allotted time period -- and barring previous speakers from

taking part is simply undemocratic.

Chairwoman Katrina Foley said the reason was “late-night meetings

affect our decision-making process the next day.” We couldn’t agree more,

but that’s not the way to handle it.

Furthermore, the way meetings -- especially those of the City Council

-- have been running recently, “the next day” means the wee hours of the

next morning.

At its Monday meeting, the commission approved the Home Ranch project

and recommended the council follow suit. That decision came at 1:30 a.m.

Tuesday.

While that sounds late, that’s nothing compared with the end of the

City Council’s Sept. 18 meeting. You probably missed that one because it

happened about 3 a.m. the next day. But it didn’t happen before the

council could approve an important bit of business -- a police contract

that came with salary hikes for officers.

Earlier in the meeting, the council decided to call an “urgency

action” to discuss the police contract, in which it would discuss the

matter in closed session.

Those sessions typically occur after the last public agenda item

concludes.

The council stated that a need for the “urgency action” existed

because there were concerns over the state of the economy in relation to

the terrorist acts of Sept. 11. That, to us, sounds like a feeble excuse

for an emergency closed session to discuss a police contract that expired

Aug. 31 and was on the consent calendar earlier that same month.

In fact, media law attorneys that we talked to say the council’s

late-night deliberations may have constituted a violation of the Brown

Act, the state’s open meeting law that dictates the public must be

notified in advance if an issue is going to be discussed by a voting bloc

of elected officials.

Whether or not they violated the Brown Act is a matter for the

district attorney’s office to decide, not us. But there’s no doubt that

the council violated the spirit of open government and the aforementioned

goal of ensuring the public participates in or is at least aware of its

decisions.

The council, like the Planning Commission, should not be making

decisions early in the morning, especially not at 3 a.m.

Once again, we urge the council and the commission to begin meetings

earlier. Perhaps start meetings at 4:30 p.m., rather than 6:30 p.m., and

finish at a reasonable hour.

We’re pretty sure that would help everyone sleep a lot easier.