Councilman Says Trio Violated Meeting Law

Oxnard Councilman Manuel Lopez on Tuesday accused three council members of violating the state’s open meeting law by publicly declaring their opposition to moving residents of a run-down trailer camp to a new mobile home park in south Oxnard.

The pronouncements--made by City Council members Geraldine Furr, Dorothy S. Maron and Michael Plisky at a meeting of the Tierra Vista Neighborhood Council--prompted the city’s housing director to eliminate the site from consideration for the much-needed park.

The three council members attended the meeting last week at the request of residents opposed to relocating members of the Oxnard Mobilehome Lodge to a new park proposed for an area near the Tierra Vista neighborhood.

“My message to the residents of that neighborhood and to the council is not that I disagree with the decision, but only the manner in which it was made,” Lopez said, reading from a prepared statement. “As members of the council we have the responsibility to follow all of the laws of the state of California and must be held accountable for any violation.”

Furr, Maron and Plisky said they did not violate the state law governing public meetings. They said they didn’t sit together or speak to each other at the neighborhood meeting.

“There was no violation of anything,” Maron said. “No action has been taken. We didn’t vote for the project or against it.”

Plisky said he spoke at the meeting, and voiced his opposition to relocating the park near the Tierra Vista neighborhood. But he said he left the gathering before the other council members spoke.

Although Plisky said he was not concerned about a possible legal violation, he checked with City Atty. Gary Gillig and was reassured that there was no violation.

“There was no determination made, no official vote taken,” Plisky said. “There was certainly no premeditation, no intention and no collaboration to violate the law.”

The state’s open meeting law, known as the Ralph M. Brown Act, requires public agencies to conduct nearly all business in sessions open to the public. It also requires proper notice of a meeting, which is defined as any gathering of a quorum to discuss public business where decisions can be made.

After the council tentatively moved forward with plans to relocate members of the cramped trailer camp to 21 unincorporated acres near Olds Road, the Tierra Vista Neighborhood Council called a meeting to oppose the move.

And when the three council members showed up at the meeting and independently voiced their opposition to the relocation plan, city Housing Director Sal Gonzalez, who attended the same meeting, wrote a memo saying the site was no longer under consideration.

“The city planned mobile home park will not be built in the Tierra Vista Area, according to three City Council members,” Gonzalez wrote. “Addressing about 500 opponents to locating the project in the area, council members . . . said they would not support the development of the new park in the Tierra Vista Neighborhood Council area.”

The council is expected to formally consider excluding the neighborhood from the list of sites next month.

Renee Allison, government affairs advocate for the California Newspaper Publishers Assn., said it appears the council did not follow proper procedures.

“Whenever you have a quorum and the discussion of public business, you have a meeting under the definition of the Brown Act,” Allison said. “I think this memo does indicate that they did make a collective decision and it wasn’t made within the context of an open meeting.”

Gillig had little to say about the allegation, and would not confirm that he had told Plisky or any other council member that they had not violated the open meeting law.

“I’ve not been asked to render an opinion,” he said. “If there has been a violation of the Brown Act, that’s for the district attorney to determine.”

Last year, Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury became so frustrated by a series of alleged violations of the Brown Act on part of the Oxnard City Council that he called on city residents to vote the council out of office.

A 1990 Ventura County grand jury investigation determined that the City Council violated the state law four times since 1987 during closed meetings at which members privately discussed city budget questions.