A Novato Sanitary District board member said his fellow board members excluded him from closed-door meeting in violation of the Brown Act, California’s open government law. -DB
January 11, 2010
By Jim Welte
When Dennis Welsh became the lone opposition candidate elected to the Novato Sanitary District board last November, he and his new colleagues expressed doubts they could leave the rancor behind and work together.
In a recent letter to Marin County District Attorney Ed Berberian, Welsh took those doubts a step further, accusing his fellow board members and district staff of illegally excluding him from closed-session meetings and violating the state public meetings law known as the Ralph M. Brown Act.
“My rights and responsibilities to the electorate are hampered by the district counsel and the other four board members,” Welsh wrote, asking Berberian “to admonish the Novato Sanitary District Board and legal counsel for their inappropriate actions.”
The dispute centers on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s May 2009 raid and subsequent investigation into alleged environmental violations committed in 2006 and 2007. Welsh, a longtime district employee who retired in July 2006, was interviewed by federal officials a month before the raid about the district’s environmental procedures.
Because of that interview, and the possibility that Welsh could be a witness in any criminal trial that might result from the investigation, district counsel Kent Alm determined that Welsh had a conflict of interest in the case and must recuse himself from closed-door discussions about it. The portion of the board’s Dec. 28 closed-session agenda that dealt with the federal investigation was postponed.
Welsh disputed Alm’s claim and sought a written opinion from Alm on the matter. Welsh, who was sworn in at the board’s Dec. 14 meeting, said that he wrote the letter to the district attorney when he didn’t receive a response from Alm.
Berberian said an investigator in his office contacted Welsh but has yet to make a determination on the claim.
“We will make a determination as to whether the Brown Act applies and if there are irregularities in that, we will talk to the sanitary district and its board members,” he said. “We usually approach this from a training perspective, explaining the law and how it applies. There are ultimately civil injunctive actions that we could petition to take if that was necessary.”
Alm did not return requests for comment. District General Manager Beverly James said, “All of the district board members, with the exception of Welsh, have received the training in the Brown Act, and as far as I know have been extremely responsible about it.”
Welsh said his fellow board members, including the recently re-elected Mike Di Giorgio and Bill Long, have been “polite but not warm.”
But, he noted, “there haven’t been any controversial issues yet. This might be the beginning of it, though. If they’re going to try and exclude me even though that’s an illegal move, that’s a problem. District counsel should have known that I shouldn’t be excluded from these meetings.”
Board President Di Giorgio said he was not pleased with Welsh’s letter and the resulting dust-up.
“This kind of behavior belittles the integrity of the board and the district’s legal counsel,” Di Giorgio said. “I’m not taking it lightly. And from a personal point of view, it’s not unanticipated.”
Copyright 2010 Marin Independent Journal