About District 4

Fourth District, Calaveras County, CA

Altaville | Angels Camp | Douglas Flat | Murphys | Vallecito

Open and Closed Government

The first and third Tuesdays of each month are City Council meeting evenings. The Calaveras Enterprise also arrives. Today's edition contained an editorial by Buzz Eggleston. I urge everyone to read his important commentary on the Waller affair. I'll quote only one sentence -- "The people of Calaveras County expect a government that is completely open and transparent." I agree, fundamentally that's why I am running to represent the Fourth District.

I went to the City Council meeting with Eggleston's words in mind. Self-consciously, I though "How open and transparent are we?" Well, we do provide an opportunity for anyone to speak to Council. Frequently, those comments elicit a bit of discussion; and if they get too rangy the topic is referred to staff and/or one of our committees. We follow our published agenda, seldom do we take up "emergency" additions -- the people know what we are going to do before we do it.

A typical agenda item is discussed in general by the staff, then the public is asked for their specific comments, and finally, the matter is brought back to the Council for more discussion. Many times, members of the public have additional comments on the matter before Council finalizes the item and votes. Occasionally, the Council doesn't feel the matter is quite ready for a vote and the matter is referred back to staff and/or committee. Once all the agenda items have been dealt with, each member reports on their City activities since the last meeting and we end with a preview of the upcoming events.

As it so happened on Tuesday night, we went into a "closed session" before adjourning. Closed sessions are regulated by the California law known as the Brown Act (or "Sunshine Law). Closed sessions are strictly limited to a handful of specific subject matters. For example, labor and real estate negotiations. Unless there is a specific provision allowing closed deliberation, then the discussion must be held in public. Tuesday night's closed session was specifically concerning potential litigation, also an allowed subject.

One of the most troublesome aspects of closed sessions is the potential for deliberations straying away from an allowed subject into non-allowed area. Keeping us in bounds is one of the jobs of the City Attorney. I glad to say that we do good job of policing ourselves.

A final note: at the end of the closed sessions the Council is required to announce any legislative action taken. Frequently, we report "no action taken" -- so what were we doing? The simple answer is that "legislative action" involves taking a vote on a motion. Most of the time, the Council discusses potential courses of action with staff and each other without taking a final vote. After all, these matters usually concern negotiations in progress and the final resolution is yet to be determined.

Please share your views with me at "Write Lee".