[April 12, 2012]

Stanislaus mayors' meeting to be private despite pledge

Apr 12, 2012 (The Modesto Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Despite pledging to meet in public to dodge a lawsuit three weeks ago, Stanislaus County's mayors intend to gather in private Wednesday.

Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh said he was asked to be the host of this month's meeting and chose to invite the eight other mayors to a private dinner in his home. The mayors' group is private and need not comply with state law requiring posting of public meetings or allowing others to attend, he said.

Without access, it may be impossible to assess whether the mayors' countywide growth initiative, crafted in secret, is strong or losing momentum. A growth-regulating agency recently expressed impatience and is exploring another policy for preserving farmland.

The Bee on Monday was unable to reach a Sacramento attorney specializing in California's open meetings law. Last month, he said he would not pursue a lawsuit threat because the mayors had promised to open their doors to all.

In a March 22 Bee story, four of the nine mayors acknowledged that they quit another agency, three saying the strategy was to avoid the possibility of running afoul of the Brown Act, which governs meeting transparency. They announced that they would publicly post agendas and invite anyone to observe their next meeting, scheduled for Wednesday in Oakdale, according to a rotation.

"We have nothing to hide," Riverbank Mayor Virginia Madueno, the group's leader, said at the time. "If people want to come and see what we're talking about, sure." On Monday, Oakdale Mayor Pat Paul said she had bought Easter baskets and acquired local products such as walnuts and almonds to be given as gifts for the mayors before learning of the switch. She didn't know that the public had been uninvited, she said.

"I thought we'd changed our ways," Paul said. "What are we doing?" Marsh said he received an e-mail asking him to be the host of Wednesday's meeting and complied. He referred questions about the switch to Madueno, who said she was busy before a noon council meeting Monday and would return a call later, but did not during business hours.

Marsh spoke against transparency Marsh took office in February after campaigning with a promise for transparency. He said he considered holding Wednesday's meeting at a restaurant, as mayors often did when former Modesto Mayor Jim Ridenour led the group, but opted to have a private meal.

"In my mind, it's a social meeting at my house for dinner to meet my colleagues," Marsh said.

In The Bee's story in March, Marsh said he did not agree with the group's concessions for openness. At the time, he said, "You have to brainstorm and throw (around) ideas that are probably not well thought out. Someone in the group will say, 'That won't work; how about this?' You can't do that if everyone is looking over their shoulder." The mayors missed a December deadline to produce a ballot initiative asking all voters to weigh in on boundaries beyond which cities could not grow before 2050. Two weeks ago, the Stanislaus Local Agency Formation Commission criticized the mayors' effort and said the commission will craft another sprawl-curbing policy.

The mayors' private meetings constituted a quorum of the Stanislaus Council of Governments, albeit unintentionally, Californians Aware attorney Terry Francke contended in February.

A few weeks later, Madueno, Marsh, Paul and Ceres Mayor Chris Vierra resigned from the StanCOG board and were replaced by other representatives of their respective cities. They said future mayors' meetings would be public, until The Bee asked for an agenda Monday.

"There is no agenda," Marsh said.

Bee staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at gstapley@modbee.com or (209) 578-2390.

___ (c)2012 The Modesto Bee (Modesto, Calif.) Visit The Modesto Bee (Modesto, Calif.) at www.modbee.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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