A regular reader, who for obvious reasons in a small town, wishes to remain anonymous, wants you Brown Act and Coastal Commission experts to weigh in.
I was not at the Planning Commission meeting tonight. The reader watched it on Access Humboldt and said Harbor Commissioners Greg Dale, Richard Marks and Pat Higgins spoke in favor of an amendment to land use that the reader said, "seems like an attempt to skirt the coastal development requirement".
The Brown Act says majority and three out of five Harbor Commissioners were there.
The video will not be available to link until tomorrow.
What are your thoughts?
I know school board trustees who won't even participate in a Parent-Teacher Association Facebook discussion because of the potential that two other trustees might also post a comment. Three public officials from the same body speaking at the same physical meeting? There's no question in my mind whether there was a violation.
ReplyDeleteThank you AJ for your comment.
ReplyDeleteTo the same end, I've known a city council member who would ascertain whether other council members were attending certain public events and then not go if two others were likely to show up.
ReplyDeleteE-mail conversations between council members had to similarly be handled in a delicate manner, in terms of who is cc'd on an e-mail. Receiving an e-mail sent to all elected officials in the group is one thing, but if someone does a 'reply to all' discussing an issue, then it gets dicey quick.