A veteran community college trustee said her colleagues may have held illegal “serial meetings” in violation of the state’s open meetings law. The trustee admitted the allegations were based on hearsay. -DB
Stockton Record
June 4, 2009
By Alex Breitler
STOCKTON – All seven trustees at San Joaquin Delta College denied violating state open meetings laws Wednesday, one day after a longtime trustee sternly warned that some of her colleagues may be engaged in “serial meetings.”
Trustee Janet Rivera at a public meeting Tuesday night said she heard fellow trustees have received calls and other contacts from other trustees. The Brown Act prohibits elected officials from persuading a consensus to vote on matters through one-on-one meetings or phone calls.
The contacts “appear to have been for the purpose of discussing the substance of matters that this board must decide as a group in the course of public meetings,” Rivera said.
Delta has a history of Brown Act violations and was taken to task in 2008 by a San Joaquin County grand jury and by a peer-review accreditation team.
Rivera did not name names in her prepared statement, nor in a follow-up interview Wednesday. She said her understanding of the incident was “hearsay.” She also did not specify the topic of the suspected serial meetings.
“I have seen enough of this type of behavior from past board members. This is not transparency,” Rivera said.
Her admonition drew rebuke from some colleagues.
“I’m friends with (Rivera), but I think it was highly inappropriate,” said Ted Simas, who blew the whistle last year on an alleged serial meeting orchestrated by then-board President Leo Burke.
“If you have assertions, make them,” he said. “You either have something or you don’t.”
“I really don’t know what (Rivera) is talking about. If she has some specifics, she needs to say them,” Trustee Mary Ann Cox said.
But Rivera’s prepared statement Tuesday also generated support.
Board President Steve Castellanos, while denying any knowledge of wrongdoing, commended her.
“It doesn’t hurt any one of us to be constantly reminded of our ethical duty,” he said. “Continual self-reminding and self-policing of the board is something that I think we just have to constantly keep in front of us.”
Trustees Taj Khan, Jennet Stebbins and Teresa Brown also denied any involvement Wednesday.
Brown supported Rivera, however, saying “obviously there are people who are not telling the truth.”
Last week, a follow-up grand jury report found that Delta trustees, a majority of whom were elected in November in an unprecedented turnover, have a “renewed sense of ethics and responsibility” compared to last year’s board.
Rivera made her Brown Act remarks Tuesday night as the foreman of the grand jury sat in the audience.
David Renison stood toward the end of the meeting and said the grand jury has “seen positive changes, and we are very encouraged with the present composition of the board.”
Copyright 2009 San Joaquin Media Group