Water Board Told to Keep Sessions Open

PORT HUENEME — A local water agency committee overseeing development of a $13.4-million water-treatment plant must comply with state law by holding its meetings in public, the Ventura County district attorney has warned.

In a letter sent to the agency’s director Monday, Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury rejected the argument that the Port Hueneme Water Agency’s operating committee is exempt from the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law.

Bradbury’s office launched an investigation of the agency after reviewing a memo issued Aug. 29. In the memo, agency officials said they intended to keep members of the public out of the committee meetings to avoid disruptions.

But such closed-door sessions “deprive the public of information to which it is entitled,” Bradbury stated in his letter to Port Hueneme City Manager John R. Velthoen, who also serves as director of the water agency.

Velthoen acknowledged Wednesday that the operating committee shut out a Channel Islands Beach Community Services District official from a meeting earlier this year. The agency intends to comply with Bradbury’s ruling, Velthoen said.

“If that’s what he [Bradbury] thinks, that’s what we’ll do,” Velthoen said.

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At issue is the cost of a water-treatment plant being built by the agency, which includes representatives of the city of Port Hueneme, the beach district and the Point Mugu and Port Hueneme Navy bases.

The Oxnard treatment plant, scheduled to open in April, is being built to improve the drinking water for about 56,000 people in the area. Agency officials have estimated the plant will cost $13.4 million.

But officials from the beach district--the government agency serving residents of unincorporated beach-area communities near Oxnard--are worried that the plant’s construction costs are spiraling over budget. The inflated costs could drive up water prices once the plant opens, beach district officials fear.

Throughout the past year, beach district officials have pressed the agency for detailed financial information.

Anna Spanopoulos, a member of the beach district’s board of directors, said she went to a water agency operating committee meeting at Port Hueneme City Hall earlier this year but was barred from attending.

She said she wanted to sit in on the meeting of the committee to learn more about the water plant’s financial situation. But the meeting was delayed until she left.

“I felt that the meeting should be open,” Spanopoulos said Wednesday. “I feel there was valuable information. I just wanted to learn what was going on.”

Bill Higgins, the beach district’s acting general manager, said the closed-door meeting is just one instance of the agency’s stonewalling on questions about the water plant’s costs.

“The issue has been a festering disagreement between our agency and the city of Port Hueneme for the last year,” said Higgins, who has represented the beach district at operating committee meetings.

He added that the operating committee discusses important information, such as the cost and construction schedule of the water plant project.

Velthoen said the committee had consulted with City Atty. Don G. Kircher on the legality of the closed session. He said water agency officials were advised that the operating committee did not have to meet in public, because the committee consists of non-elected officials who make no binding decisions.

Cost information on the project has been made readily available to beach district officials, Velthoen said.

“They can complain about anything they want,” Velthoen said. “It’s not material to me. . . . They’ve had information from the get-go. These meetings aren’t the source of information.”

The water agency director added that the plant construction is not over budget, and that the $13.4-million cost estimate is accurate.

Nevertheless, Velthoen said future operating committee meetings will be public.

Under state law, the meetings must be public because the agency and its operating committee were formed by elected officials, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Bob Meyers said.

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The district attorney’s office did not investigate any specific instances, but instead focused on the water agency’s memorandum.

The memo stated that Navy officials, in particular, were opposed to public meetings because audience members might be disruptive. Such disruption, the memo states, could prevent certain issues from being discussed “in a timely and professional manner.”

Navy officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.