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.