BUENA PARK : D.A. Ends Probe of Council Members

The district attorney’s office has announced it has found insufficient evidence to charge two council members and a former council member with violating the state’s Brown Act.

An investigation began last May after a resident alleged that the City Council had violated the act, which regulates what public agencies may discuss in closed session. Violations of the Brown Act are a misdemeanor and carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail and $1,000 fine.

“Criminal charges are not warranted,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Marc Kelly said. “The case is now closed.”

The decision also closes the book on the council’s controversial decision to abolish the city’s Fire Department.

Resident Max Schulman had alleged that Councilmen Donald L. Bone and Arthur C. Brown and former Councilwoman Rhonda J. McCune had voted in closed session to hire a consultant to study the fire issue and then failed to report the result in open session, both of which he claimed violated the Brown Act.

Schulman bitterly opposed the council’s proposal to contract with the county for fire services.

Kelly said that investigators would have to have found that the council members “intended to deprive the public of information and intended to violate the Brown Act,” he said. Bone, who was mayor at the time and is now a councilman, said the council had discussed the issue but never voted on it because a vote was not necessary to hire a consultant.