How the Albany City Council Broke the Law to Keep a "Promise"

At the May 6th meeting of the Albany City Council, the Council blatantly violated California's open meetings law (the Brown Act).

Here are some relevant quotes pertaining to the Brown Act, followed by descriptions of some of the Council's actions that violated it:

1.
"Public comment of matters not on the agenda shall be provided either before or after the regular agenda."

- Following the Report from Albany's Homeless Task Force, numerous members of the special interest groups in attendance (i.e. Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP), Sierra Club, Citizens for the Albany Shoreline (CAS), East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) etc.) stood up and spoke. Each of their comments were about "the Park" (aka the Albany Bulb). It was the failed duty of the City Council to stop such comments from being made and to remind those who said them that the agenda item being discussed was the only item appropriate for the public to comment on.

- When Shirley Dean stood up and stated that she was there "...to talk about camping on the Bulb, not about those who are experiencing homeless or about poverty.", the Council should have stopped Ms. Dean immediately.

- By my count: 18 people, stood up to comment (following the Report from the HTF) that were *not* HTF members themselves. Of those 18 people: 8 actually spoke about homelessness. The other 10 people spoke primarily about turning the Bulb into a State Park.

- The Council allowed Robert Cheasty (President of CESP) to speak for almost 5 minutes, during a public comment period when all other speakers were held strictly to the standard 3 minute limit per comment (and were reminded by a beeping sound, when that limit was reached). Robert Cheatsy spoke for 4 minutes and 38 seconds and never got "beeped". In fact, 4 minutes and 22 seconds into his "comment", when he was gently reminded by Mayor Thomsen (*not* by a beep) that he needed to "finish-up", he was given another 16 seconds to finish pushing his agenda.


2.
"As for discussion or comments on off agenda items, they are limited to brief informational responses by members to statements or questions from the public, questions for clarification, a brief announcement or report of a member’s personal activities, or direction to staff to follow up on a citizen’s issue or place it on the agenda of a future meeting."

- If you pay close attention to the words and actions of Mayor Thomsen, Vice Mayor Wile and Council Member Barnes, it is evident that the actions the Council took that night were determined before the meeting.

- Vice Mayor Wile had to wear her reading glasses to read her list of recommendations. She only glanced up occasionally, while reading (word-for-word) from a piece of paper.

- Mayor Thomsen also had to put her reading glasses on, in order to read her description of the motion that she was about to "second".

- Unless we are to believe that the Mayor and Vice Mayor took notes during the meeting in handwriting SO *tiny* that they needed glasses to read their own words, those monologues were either:
a. typed beforehand
or
b. hand-written, by someone other than themselves.



3.
"Nothing not on the agenda may be acted on."
"Action taken on off agenda items... are voidable by a court."

- The Council's decision to take action to reopen talks with EBRPD, about handing over management of the Albany Bulb, was NOT on the agenda for that meeting. (A blatant Brown Act violation)

- Michael Barnes, admitted that the subject of "the park" was "not what was agendized(sic) tonight. And, that is not the issue."

- Mayor Thomsen said: "The park issue should be separated from the homeless issue. The homeless issue is what we're dealing with, tonight."

- Later in the meeting, Mayor Thomsen said (as a side comment, while reading Vice Mayor Wile's recommendations): "Sort of as an aside... But, as number 4...", then proceeded to describe the fourth action that the Council took that night regarding the transfer of management of the Albany Bulb. (A matter that was *clearly* NOT on the agenda).

- Council Member Maass stated that: "... we do have to kinda separate the Bulb from the situation with the homeless people in Albany".



4.
"Information communicated to a quorum through a series of contacts, individual phone calls (“daisy chain’), or a third person (“spoke and wheel”) to evade the public is a “meeting” (§54952.2(a)(2) : 63 Opps.Atty.Gen. 820 (1980); Stockton Newspapers v. Stockton Redevelop. Agency, 171 CA3d 95 (1985); Common Cause v. Stirling, 147 CA3d 518 (1983)"

- There were at least two prior discussions about "the park issue", between at least two Council Members (Vice Mayor Wile and Council Member Barnes) and two individuals (Whitney Dotson and Norman LaForce, respectively), who are heavily involved with EBRPD.

- Both Mr. Dotson and Mr. LaForce are on the CESP Board of Directors *and* active within EBRPD. Vice Mayor Wile and Council Member Barnes each made comments to these gentlemen out in the audience, reassuring them of their respective personal commitments to seeing the Albany Bulb go to EBRPD. (Which, again: Was NOT on the agenda!)

- Vice Mayor Wile obviously communicated before the meeting with Mr. Dotson (who is currently a CESP Advisory Board Elected Official and Ward 1 Representative on the EBRPD Board of Directors), to whom she mouthed "Thank you", after reading her list of recommendations. If she hadn't spoken with him, prior to the meeting, then what was she thanking him for?...

- Council Member Barnes confessed to having "received a letter from someone with the Parks issue, saying 'we'd like to help.' That letter came from the Sierra Club, and it was by Mr. Norman LaForce" (*former* Ward 1 Representative on the EBRPD Board of Directors, who also currently assists with distribution of the agenda packets for the EBRPD Finance Committee meetings).

- Members of the general public (Albany residents or otherwise) were not informed that the Albany Bulb was an item that the Council planned to discuss, at the May 6th meeting.

So: How *did* CESP know?...

- This is an excerpt from the Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP) 2013 Spring Shoreline Events publication.
From the section "Shoreline Related Meetings":
Albany City Council Meeting
Monday, May 6
Albany City Council will discuss the Albany Bulb and the Homeless Task Force will present its recommendations to the Council. If you would like to see the Bulb be accessible as a Park for all to enjoy, come and let Council know. Meet at City Council Chambers, 1000 San Pablo Ave, Albany - 7:30pm

That newsletter was sent out sometime before April 20, 2013 (as that is the date of the earliest event in the calendar).

- All 10 people, who spoke about "the Park issue" are currently affiliated with at least one or more of:
a) CESP
b) Sierra Club
c) CAS
d) EBRPD

- 7 people, out of those 10 special interest environmentalists, are high-ranking members of CESP.

- From the CESP website, I gathered a list of people who spoke at the meeting, and their positions in CESP. Anyone, wondering why the Council chose to take the actions that they did, on May 6th, should familiarize themselves with this list:

CESP Officers:
Robert Cheasty, President
Norman La Force, Vice President (Wrote Council Member Barnes a letter offering "help" with the park)
Edward Bennett, Co-Treasurer

CESP Board of Directors:
Shirley Dean (The recommendations made by Vice Mayor Wile, were "based on Shirley Dean's ideas.")
Rochelle Nason
Tony Sustak

CESP Advisory Board Elected Officials:
Marge Atkinson (Albany City Council Member)
Whitney Dotson (Communicated with Vice Mayor Wile about the park issue, *before* the meeting.)

CESP has other officials, listed on their page. But,*these* officials will *obviously* stop at nothing to get their way. Even if that means assisting the Albany City Council in breaking the law.


5.
"A violation occurs for a tentative as well as a final decision. In fact, criminal liability is triggered by a member’s participation in a meeting in violation of the Brown Act – not whether that member has voted with the majority or minority, or has voted at all. “The second component of a criminal violation is that action is taken with the intent of a member ‘to deprive the public of information to which the member knows or has reason to know the public is entitled’ by the Brown Act.” Open & Public III: A User’s Guide to the Brown Act at 22 (2000)"


- Letters were sent by Albany residents to the City Council, demanding that they "Cure and Correct" their Brown Act violations.

A quote from the June 3 City Council meeting agenda:
"The purpose of this agenda item is to clearly and properly notice City Council action on designating the Mayor, Vice Mayor and City Manager to meet with District and State Parks officials about making the Albany Bulb a park."

By adding the item (of the transfer of the Bulb) to the agenda of a subsequent meeting, they chose not to respond OR to "Cure and Correct" their misdeeds, ignoring the demands of their constituents.


This is not about homelessness, the Bulb, or *any* of the individual issues that were discussed or acted upon that night.

This is not about being happy or unhappy, with the Council's decisions.

This is about a City Council who (despite being elected to be public servants) is willing to sacrifice the democratic rights of its own constituency, if the Council believes that doing so, will further their own personal political agenda(s).

More than just a violation of the Brown Act, what happened on the evening of May 6th was a violation of my trust in the Albany City Council, both as a voter AND as an American.