Watchdog group will file suit against Board of Supervisors

A government watchdog organization is petitioning the courts to order members of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors to stop dining together when a majority is present.

Richard McKee on Thursday said a petition was being filed with the Tulare County Superior Court to issue a writ that would mandate the Board of Supervisors to cease its time-honored practice of eating lunch in groups of three or more, and comply with the state’s open meeting laws.

The challenge from McKee — who presides over a nonprofit group, Californians Aware — is the latest in increasing demands for more transparency at the county level. McKee alleges that the lunch meetings deprived the public of its right to directly address the board about the business they discussed. His organization, Californians Aware, is on a mission to ensure that the public is given opportunity to attend and participate in meetings of local legislative bodies.

On Tuesday, the board voted at its regularly scheduled meeting to forgo its luncheons while waiting for staff to draft policy concerning meal and travel expense reimbursement.

“We have no reason to believe that their policy will in the future conform with the Brown Act,” Kelly Aviles, the attorney representing McKee, said.

Before going to the courts, McKee, a La Verne resident, wrote a letter to supervisors in February, demanding that they publicly acknowledge that they would stop holding dining meetings where a majority were present, or held serially, where business within the board’s jurisdiction is discussed.

Board Chairman Steve Worthley responded on March 5, firmly stating that the board has never violated the Brown Act.

“As elected officials, we take our responsibilities to our constituents very seriously and do not take any action that would be considered a meeting as defined by the Brown Act, when eating together,” he wrote. “At no time did members of the Board of Supervisors hear, discuss, deliberate, or take any action on any item with their jurisdiction in violation of the Brown At while eating lunch together.”

The petition includes information from reporting done by the Visalia Times-Delta, including a review of restaurant receipts and credit card statements. Of the 228 lunches that board members charged to taxpayers in the first half of 2009, a voting majority was reportedly present during 30, and the entire board reportedly met for meals at least 11 times.

“Because County Counsel [Kathleen Bales-Lange] has been a participant in several of the unannounced lunch meetings with the board, where matters such as the ‘official activities of individual supervisors, travel planning, and management of the individual Supervisors’ offices’ were discussed, which she said fostered a ‘collegial relationship’ and could be ‘work-related,’ it is likely that the Board will continue its illegal past practices,” the petition states.

County spokesman Eric Coyne declined to comment.

It could take six months to a year for the court to respond to the petition. If it rules in favor of McKee, Avila said she will seek reimbursement from the County for her client’s attorney fees. While she declined to say how much that might cost taxpayers, a settlement McKee reached last year with the Fillmore City Council resulted in the Ventura County city paying $6,000 of McKee’s attorney’s fees. In return, McKee dismissed the lawsuit.

Contact Jenna Chandler at 784-5000, Ext. 1050, or jchandler@portervillerecorder.com.