Handley, who had focused
the lawyer's attention on the violation on Monday, thanked Sawyer
for moving quickly.
The Ojai Valley News first raised the issue of a potential violation
of the so-called Brown Act last Friday, the morning after the board'
decided to appeal a judge's ruling in a lawsuit to gain money for
water the federal government requires for migration of the endangered
steelhead trout.
After the April 19th vote, the board declared that it had voted to
appeal. But on Sawyer's recommendation, it declined to state what
the vote was or how each director voted.
Sawyer said then that the decision was not required to be reported
or the vote to be stated because the appeal constituted a legal tactic,
and not a final decision. But Handley, who voted against the appeal,
pressed the issue.
“I reported it to the attorney general's office,” Handley
said in an interview. “They referred me to the government code,
and it's absolutely clear that there was a violation.”
Handley reported his findings to Sawyer in an e-mail on Monday, so
the lawyer would have a chance to respond before the board's Wednesday
meeting..
The next day, Casitas circulated a press release at Sawyer's request
announcing for the first time that the board's decision last week
was on a 3-2 vote and that directors Pete Kaiser, Bill Hicks and Jim
Word voted for it, and Handley and Russ Baggerly against it.
The Ojai Valley News had reported the vote the last Friday based on
interviews with the five directors.
At the board meeting Wednesday, Handley restated his concerns, and
said that state law also indicates that Sawyer should not even be
sitting in confidential discussions about the district's suit against
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, because he is not the district's attorney
in that case. Roger Marzulla of Washington, is.
While not responding to the latter point, Sawyer acknowledged he'd
given the board bad legal advice.
“The failure was solely
the responsibility of agency counsel,” he said. But the board
had 30 days to correct the error, and it promptly did, he said.
Handley had said that directors had similarly violated the law with
previous undeclared votes, but in his email he specified only two
recent meetings by the board on the federal lawsuit.
“I am concerned we have had past Brown Act violations,”
he said. And he said he was “not comfortable” sitting
on a board that violates the law.
Earlier, a lawyer for the California Newspaper Publishers Assn. had
reinforced Handley conclusion about the illegality of the board's
reporting.
“A violation occurred,” said Jim Ewert, legal counsel
for CNPA, when told of the action. “They had a duty to report
out (of closed session) not only that they had made a decision, but
also to report the vote of every member present and action taken.”
Sawyer, the media lawyer said, “needs to get some training on
the Brown Act.”
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