Let’s see to it our leaders uphold the law
I think most of our readers would agree that a law doesn’t have
much value if there aren’t any consequences for breaking it.
Yet, in my decade and a half or so as a journalist, I’ve seen
precious few cases where someone paid any price at all for breaking
the state’s open meeting laws.
It may have just happened again in a case we reported on Oct. 3
involving the Orange County Sanitation District and its 25-member
board
The sanitation board, with its attorney’s blessing, and hiding
under the cloak of “pending litigation,” decided to bar the public
and press from a meeting held with representatives from the
Environmental Protection Agency and the Santa Ana Regional Water
Quality Control Board.
The issue was the EPA waiver the sanitation district recently
voted to discontinue. And as for the pending lawsuit, well, that
could be coming from that very same EPA, who had members in the room.
Seems incredible to me.
The law does say politicians can discuss legal strategy in closed
session. But why on earth would the sanitation district invite in a
potential adversary, the EPA, to the party but not the public?
That’s exactly what Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook said she
was thinking as she walked out of the meeting in protest.
And Newport Beach Mayor Tod Ridgeway pretty much concurred with
her.
“It probably shouldn’t have been a closed session,” he said.
As a card-carrying member of the First Amendment Coalition, you
can bet I have some strong feelings about government operating in
secret.
So I admit, I’m not exactly an objective source here.
Neither would be Terry Francke, an attorney for the First
Amendment Coalition, a Sacramento-based media advocacy group,
credited for helping to author the laws governing state agencies,
known as the Ralph M. Brown Act.
But Francke also saw things the same as Ridgeway and Cook, telling
our reporter the meeting was akin to having a football huddle and
inviting the other team in to hear the play calling.
So yeah, I think there should be precious few cases where
government should be allowed to conduct the public’s business behind
closed doors.
So now we have several people who suspect the sanitation district
broke the law. Is anybody investigating that?
The answer is probably not. Unless a member of the public files a
complaint with the district attorney’s office, violations of this
particular state law can pretty much go unchecked, except for media
sorts who cry foul of course.
When an agency does get investigated and even prosecuted, there
hardly is any punishment more than an admonition not to do it again,
or maybe a small fine.
So I have a plea for all of you.
Next time you get riled enough to write about the ficus tree issue
or the job center, take out an extra piece of paper and write another
letter to your local councilman or assemblyman or even the governor
to tell them how much you value open government.
Because while ficus trees and the job center are certainly issues
worthy of debate, I don’t think there are too many things more
important than making sure that our democratic form of government
continues to operate openly and with the public’s input and
knowledge.
I’d wager that none of us are perfectly happy having politicians
and government officials make decisions in secret that affect our
lives or pocketbooks.
* * *
Last Friday, we probably could have called a public meeting
ourselves as several members of the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa city
councils showed up for our annual luncheon to honor the 103 Most
Influential People in Newport-Mesa.
There was a star-studded crowd that showed up at the Center Club
in Costa Mesa with way too many names to drop in this space.
But I’ll share a little moment here that some of you may find
interesting.
We decided to play a little game of political prognostication and
had Greenlight candidate Alan Beek square off against
anti-Greenlighter Steve Bromberg in the old schoolyard game of
Redlight/Greenlight.
We billed it as a test to see who would win the election this
November.
Unfortunately for the Greenlight crowd, Beek moved on a redlight
call and lost the game.
Just what it all means remains to be seen.
* TONY DODERO is the editor. He can be reached at (949) 574-4258
or via e-mail at tony.dodero@latimes.com.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.