Brown Act violation charge made to go away

While the Hotel Project Sonoma is likely to get the lion’s share of attention at the Planning Commission meeting on April 27, Item No. 2 on the agenda deserves some explanation.

“REQUEST: Rescission of direction to place the reconsideration of directions pertaining to two use permit applications for hillside residences on the Planning Commission agenda of May 11, 2017.”

What that means is that the Planning Commission has to pull from that agenda an item they added to it during their March 23 meeting. That was when, late in the meeting in the final public comment period, Bill Jasper asked if they had received a letter he sent them asking if they could review their request for environmental studies for his two housing projects on Fourth Street East.

After some deliberation they said they would put the matter on the agenda of the next available meeting. Since the commission meets every second Thursday, that meant May 11.

But overnight several people began raising alarms that by taking any action whatsoever that wasn’t on the March 23 agenda, they had violated the Brown Act. On April 7 – over two weeks later – attorney Rose M. Zoia sent Sonoma’s City Attorney Jeff Walters a “Demand to Cure Brown Act Violation,” thereby putting the city on the defensive.

Zoia’s letter was also sent to the local press, including the Index-Tribune, which immediately asked Walters and Planning Director David Goodison whether or not they believed they were in violation of the Brown Act. Goodison responded that same afternoon and denied there was a violation – “a public body, like the Planning commission, has the ability to consider a request to agendize an item for a future meeting without it being on a formal agenda.”

But recognizing that the discussion was not clear to the public, and came late in the meeting, Goodison said they would place Jasper’s request on the April 27 agenda – for reconsideration.

In the interim. Jasper told the Index-Tribune that the studies are moving along quickly “and negate need for reconsideration.”

Interestingly, it took and Walter almost another full week to respond officially to Zoia’s letter, which they did late on April 13. Walter responded that Jasper had withdrawn his request that the Planning Commission reconsider the matter, and the City would put on the Commission’s April 27 agenda “a request that the Commission rescind its decision placing Mr. Jasper’s reconsideration request on a future Commission agenda.”

That’s what we’re seeing this week: a resolution of a potential Brown Act violation by pulling the whole thing off the table, like a magician’s trick.