With county supervisors holding a retreat-style meeting Tuesday in a conference room at the behavioral health department office, Board Chairman Jaime De La Cruz ensured that every resident in attendance will get a chance to watch the proceeding or else it would be moved to another location.
De La Cruz said the conference room, where the board has held retreats in the past, has a capacity of about 30 people. If the number of attendees exceeds 30, the board would move, he said.
“We will make accommodations – if we have to switch the meeting to somewhere else to fit more people,” he said.
Supervisors are set to hold the retreat at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the behavioral health office, 1131 San Felipe Road. Despite such meetings catering more to relatively broad topics when compared with standard meetings, they are still considered open to the public and must follow the same rules, such as allowing reasonable access to the meetings.
Retreats are often a way for government boards to change settings and sometimes see operations first-hand, but the board agenda is limited to discussions about the 2013 meeting calendar, a first quarter budget review, impacts of budget reductions, potential revenue generation, areas for further budget reductions and “other.”
Former Supervisor Pat Loe expressed concern to the Free Lance about the limited setting for the meeting and the seriousness of the topics up for discussion – along with the last agenda item listing “other” and nothing else.
“My concern right now, obviously, is the budget,” Loe said. “They busted the budget down to almost nothing in reserve. The public really has to understand that they’re not doing this stuff for fun. They’re doing it because they don’t have a choice.”
The “other” item on the agenda, meanwhile, falls short of requirements laid out in the state open meetings law – mandating some level of detail in the description of agenda items so that residents can have an idea of the topics up for discussion.
Asked what he thought “other” meant, De La Cruz replied: “I don’t know. I guess staff put that.”
Supervisor Anthony Botelho confirmed the board has held retreats in the behavioral health conference room in the past and said he his most interested in the topics as opposed to the location.
“The public is certainly welcome,” he said.
