Pacifica Patch/Carmden Swita, 3/23/12. "Assistant D.A. says Planning Commissioners broke the law."
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| "Knowingly caused a Brown Act violation." |
"It was within this context that the Commissioners' actions violated provisions of Brown Act," wrote Assistant District Attorney Al Serrato in a letter to Mark Stechbart, one of two residents who filed a complaint with the D.A.'s office following the meeting in September. Stechbart and Jim Wagner, the second resident to file a complaint, claimed that commissioners knowingly violated the law in order to make a jab at Catrans over its plan to widen the highway, a controversial topic in itself.
Some members of the public seemed to believe that no violation had occurred, and voiced their opinions in the comment threads of Pacifica Patch's coverage of the issue. The Planning Commission officially responded to the allegations, however, when it voided all votes and testimony made outside the law at the meeting. The commission also took a one-time city training on public meeting law to better educate itself about what is legal and what is not at a meeting.
These actions, Serrato said, were satisfactory in correcting the violations and demonstrated good-faith effort to abide by the law. "In taking these steps, the Commissioners corrected the violations and demonstrated a genuine commitment to following open‐meeting laws," he wrote. "As the remedial purposes of the Brown Act have thereby been satisfied, no further action by my office is necessary."
Stechbart, who sent a letter to the Pacifica City Council today asking it to recognize the assistant district attorney's letter at its March 26 meeting, believes that an apology from Planning Commissioner Leo Leon is in order, as Leon played the most active role in Sept. 19's discussion of the highway widening plan. "Since Mr. Leon had such an active role, he certainly owes Pacifica voters an acknowledgment he was wrong and an apology," Stechbart wrote to the council." Read more, the Assistant Attorney's letter to Mark Stechbart.
Submitted at the same time by Jim Alex, and by Bob Hutchinson
Posted by Kathy Meeh
12 comments:
There you have it. NO laws broken, and remedial steps taken. Once again much ado about nothing brought to us by Spanky and Twitchy.
The DA stated that "the law was broken."
This was a serious violation. Commissioners were trying to interfere with the process by which Caltrans plans to widen Highway 1 when they broke the law.
From Patch article 10/5/11
"Commissioner Leo Leon opened the discussion by presenting some research he had done on the Caltrans DEIR and process surrounding it. This is contrary to public disclosure laws that require public notice before a topic be discussed in depth, said Francke."
Well if Leo Leon WAS being seriously considered this puts an end to that silliness.
And the law breaking continued mostly by Leon:
"Leon spoke for 4 minutes and 58 seconds about conversations he’d had with a City Council member Sue Digre, his research, how the project might impact businesses, and a document that Todd Bray had sent the commission before the meeting. Then, he suggested that the item be agendized for a future meeting."
Old news. He couldn't get 3 votes on council so he couldn't get appointed. The November election is an entirely differeent contest.
"At the end of the Planning Commission meeting, perhaps the most egregious Brown Act violation occurred..." Stechbart and Wagner claim.
"Commissioner Leon made two housekeeping motions, one to set up an informational meeting where staff would fill the commission in on the details of Caltrans’ plan for Oct. 3, and the second to set up a public hearing about the DEIR on Oct. 17—the soonest the commission could arrange, given that by law it must give the public ten days notice before such an event."
"At the time of the meeting, however, Oct. 17 would have missed Caltrans’ deadline for public input about the DEIR by ten calendar days, so Commissioner Leon made a third motion—the motion that is contrary to the Brown Act—that the Planning Commission vote to recommend the public comment period on the DEIR be extended by 30 days."
Bray,you are in fantasy land. The DA said they violated the brow act
The Brown Act is a very important law, which is violated regularly by elected officials, as open government is becoming increasingly rare.
In this case, they violated it right out in the open!
Amateur hour.
"The best way to control the opposition is to infiltrate it and run it yourself." ~ Lenin
Best way to control the opposition is to beat them in an election and gain the majority. Then go ahead and engage in the same cronyism, arrogance, and stupidity practiced by your recently ousted predecessors. Repeat cycle, ad infinitum.
Bhatman has a great headline for this story. Clear and to the point.
"PLANNING COMMISSION CLEARED OF POLITICALLY MOTIVATED CHARGES."
Todd (932), the Brown Act violation (broke the law) was remedied, not cleared.
The full letter from the Assistant District Attorney is linked on this re-posted article from Pacifica Patch, along with Patch blog comments. Where is the "cleared of potentially motivated charges" stated in the DA's letter? Can't find it, because it does not exist.
Rather, the corrective action of the Brown Act violation (broke the law) remedy is stated in that DA letter: "I am satisfied from a review of those materials that appropriate action has been taken to remedy the violations, and that additional steps will beundertaken to minimize the likelihood of any future violations."
"The recall of twenty years ago was a disaster. I learned my lesson." (3/25, 8:46pm)
Lionel, I'm having some problems finding information on the the Recall of 20 years ago, and my personal "recall" on this is vague. City councilmembers were replaced. What do you or others remember? Thanks.
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