OXNARD : Official Dismisses Grand Jury Report

Saying he has never advised a client to break the law, Oxnard City Atty. Gary Gillig on Tuesday shrugged off a Ventura County grand jury report that accuses the council of violating the state open-meeting law.

In a report released last week, the grand jury said the City Council violated the open-meeting law, known as the Brown Act, by holding five or six private meetings in September and October to discuss budget matters.

The grand jury decided not to indict council members because it said there was insufficient evidence to find that the council was aware of the violations.

All five council members said they met in closed session at Gillig’s advice or consent. Gillig returned Tuesday from a vacation in Hawaii but said he has not read the grand jury report.

However, he said he has never advised the council to violate the Brown Act and said the Ventura district attorney’s office has a much stricter interpretation of the law than other district attorneys in Southern California.

The district attorney “wants us to stop violating the Brown Act as he reads it,” Gillig said.

Special Assistant Dist. Atty. Donald Coleman said Tuesday that this was not the first time the Oxnard City Council violated the 1953 Brown Act. The law requires all government bodies to discuss and decide public matters before the public. It allows several exceptions, however, including the discussion of personnel matters.

Coleman said the council violated the law when it met behind closed doors in late 1988 to discuss the performances of then-City Treasurer Geraldine (Gerry) Furr and City Clerk Mabi Plisky. The Brown Act allows government bodies to meet in private to discuss the performance of city employees but does not allow for such meetings to evaluate other elected officials.