Compromise OKd on Mayor’s Letters Issue

Mayor Patrick Hunter’s bid to keep the letters he writes on city letterhead more private was rejected by his colleagues, who argued that the full council and the public had a right know about all city correspondence.

Hunter proposed two weeks ago that the council delete a section in the city’s procedure handbook that requires all letters on Moorpark’s official letterhead to be copied and distributed to each council member.

Arguing that “council members should be afforded the opportunity to correspond with the constituency in confidence,” the mayor asked that only one copy be kept in the city’s record file.

Hunter’s colleagues on Wednesday night made it clear they disagreed with his stance.

“It’s inconsistent with the practice of promoting full disclosure and dissemination of information,” Councilman Bernardo Perez said.

Perez proposed a compromise, which was eventually adopted. Rather than making five copies of all letters for each council member, the city clerk will now place one copy in the city’s official records file and another in a newly created file to be placed in the council’s mail room and updated every month.

This, Perez said, would save the city from making extra copies but make the letters easily accessible to all council members and the public.

Perez and council members Chris Evans, Debbie Teasley and John Wozniak agreed that whatever is written on city letterhead is their business, too, considering all five of their names are listed on the letterhead.

“To me, that works,” Wozniak said of the compromise. “It’s incumbent on all of us now to look at the mail in there. My effort was toward cutting down the number of copies. Five copies just didn’t make sense. There had to be a way around that.”

Evans asked why the city didn’t take it a step further by creating a third extra file to be placed at the front desk of City Hall for residents to have easier access. The permanent letters file is a public record, but residents now have to ask the city clerk to retrieve it.