County supervisors Thursday violated the state’s open meetings
law by sitting in together on interviews for the public works
administrator position. Board Chairman Anthony Botelho at today’s
meeting publicly acknowledged the mistake and said it ‘would never
happen again.’
HOLLISTER
Board Chairman Anthony Botelho at today’s meeting admitted that supervisors met illegally when they sat in on interviews for the vacant public works director position Thursday.
Prior to reading a written explanation, Botelho had this to say: “It won’t happen again.”
It is unclear how it came to supervisors’ attention they had violated the state’s open meetings law – which requires the county to post an agenda for any gathering of a quorum of a government body.
Botelho recited the following statement at today’s meeting:
“It has come to the board’s attention that there was a violation of the Brown Act and that members of the board of supervisors were involved in the interview of candidates for public works director on May 7. This meeting was not a public meeting of the board of supervisors. When this error was first realized yesterday, a determination was made that the error should be disclosed to the public.
“The county takes the Brown Act very seriously and wholeheartedly supports policies behind the Brown Act – specifically, the deliberations of public government should be conducted openly. It is only when an item falls within the narrowly construed statutory exemption of the Brown Act that the board can meet in closed session. Even those circumstances the matter must be agendized.
“While there was no formal or final action by the board, the board should have not met in a group to consider candidates for that position. The error was an oversight and the county will be vigilant in the future to ensure that such a mistake will not be repeated.”
Supervisors could not be reached for additional comment.
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