When a Calistogan city council member tried to secretly text his 10-year-old daughter good night, a fellow council member accused him of violating state open meeting laws. –DB
Weekly Calistogan
March 9, 2009
By Jesse Duarte
Political fireworks erupted in a confrontation between two members of the Calistoga City Council at the close of Tuesday night’s council meeting.
The tension began earlier in the meeting when Council Member Gary Kraus had interrupted the proceedings to point out to Mayor Jack Gingles that Council Member Michael Dunsford was “fiddling with something in his lap.”
Kraus told The Weekly Calistogan on Wednesday that he believed Dunsford was text-messaging on his cell phone, a practice that Kraus said is forbidden during council proceedings.
Kraus said Dunsford initially denied that he was texting but later conceded he had been texting his daughter.
Dunsford said that late in the meeting, which ended at around 10 p.m., he started to write a text message to tell his 10-year-old daughter good night. Kraus “freaked out and made a big brouhaha during the public meeting,” said Dunsford.
“He got loud and accusatory as if I was doing something that was highly inappropriate,” Dunsford said.
Kraus said that after the meeting he asked the city attorney for a legal opinion on the propriety of texting during meetings. He said the ethics training that council members are required by state law to undergo “specifically states that you are not allowed to text message while meetings are underway.” Kraus raised the possibility that texting in that way would violate the Brown Act, the state’s open meetings law.
“After the meeting I told him he should mind his own business and focus on himself as opposed to focusing on me,” said Dunsford. “Then he accused me of threatening him. I was like, ‘How does that translate into a threat?’”
At that point Kraus walked away, said Dunsford.
“Gary has a long history of insulting people publicly,” said Dunsford. “This was just him positioning himself for a future election.”
As the after-meeting discussion between Kraus and Dunsford intensified, Mayor Jack Gingles approached the two men and attempted, apparently, to intervene. “Let’s not do this here,” Kraus quoted the mayor as saying. Kraus said Gingles told him he would call Kraus on Wednesday and discuss the matter with him.
After the heated discussion, which occurred seconds after the meeting adjourned and when television cameras were switched off, Kraus said he went to the police department and stated that Dunsford “vented his anger at me.” Kraus said he gave “a very brief statement” to the police dispatcher and the officer on duty. He said he would submit a written statement to the police later on the details of the confrontation.
Police Officer Mark Harden said an official complaint had not been filed with the police as of late Wednesday morning.
The issue arose at the meeting when the council was discussing an issue that has generated some controversy: The question of whether the nonprofit Calistoga Affordable Housing has a conflict of interest in the consulting work that it does for the city. The council voted Tuesday night to return an amended contract to the staff for more revisions that would attempt to eliminate the conflict. Dunsford seemed to be at odds with other council members over the need to amend the agreement by which CAH does the work for the city.
Calistogan editorial board member John Green contributed to this article.