STANTON : Council Accused of Illegal Secrecy

A former city councilman has alleged that the council voted secretly in August on an issue involving him and his next-door neighbor.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Tanizaki said Thursday that he has begun a preliminary inquiry into a possible violation of state public meeting laws, which generally require that decisions be made in public unless they involve personnel matters or litigation.

The allegation by Edward L. Allen was supported by two council members. Councilman Harry Dotson, who attended the Aug. 13 closed-door meeting, said the City Council voted, 4-0, to give Allen’s neighbor--Lowell D. (Bud) Heitman--an extra year to remove heavy-construction equipment from his residential property.

Councilman David John Shawver did not attend the 3 p.m. closed session but said he too believes that the decision should have been made public.

Mayor Sal Sapien said Thursday that the council did vote in private last year to extend Heitman’s deadline but that he does not know whether the decision should have been reported publicly.

Heitman wanted the extra time to decide whether to retire or move his backhoe business elsewhere, Sapien said. Allen opposed Heitman’s request for an extension.

Allen said the council’s vote violates the state’s open-meeting laws because the decision was not disclosed publicly.

After the closed session, council members reconvened in public, according to the official minutes, which show that City Atty. Thomas W. Allen--no relation to the former councilman--announced that no “reportable action” had occurred in the closed session.

City Manager Terry Matz has referred questions on Allen’s allegation to the city attorney, who could not be reached for comment.

Dotson said he now believes that the Heitman decision should have been reported publicly and that it violated state law to keep it secret.

“I thought that when we came out (of closed session), the attorney would report it,” Dotson said. “When he didn’t, it was a shock.”

He did not question the city attorney’s action at the time, Dotson said, because it was his first term on the council, and the technical procedures were unclear to him.

“You don’t want to show your ignorance all the time, so you sometimes keep your mouth shut,” he said.

Dotson is a political ally of Edward Allen, who lost his bid for reelection to the council in November, 1990, after a bitter campaign.

The Heitman item was not listed on the original agenda for the meeting. Instead, City Manager Matz announced the legal reasons for the closed-door session at the time of the meeting. The Heitman issue was one of several matters to be discussed in private, the agenda indicated.