Closed-Door Session on Wetlands Canceled

Allegations that the city has routinely violated the state’s open-meeting laws have prompted city officials to cancel a closed-door discussion scheduled for Monday on issues relating to the Bolsa Chica development.

Mayor Ralph H. Bauer said City Atty. Gail Hutton will determine if the meeting must be held in public.

Eileen Murphy of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, one of several wetlands preservation groups in the city, is pushing for that. She sent a letter to Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi to complain of what she said are violations of the state’s open-meeting laws, known as the Brown Act.

Her complaint stems from a Jan. 13 closed City Council session to hear a consultant’s report on options available to the Koll Real Estate Group to secure water for the 2,400-home Bolsa Chica project the developer is proposing.

Some city officials want to negotiate a deal to sell water to Koll in return for construction of a new reservoir. Bolsa Chica Land Trust is opposed to the sale of city water to the development company, saying it would cause higher water rates citywide.

Hutton said the closed-session meeting was proper because it involved the potential purchase of real estate for construction of a reservoir and fire station.

But Murphy calls the real estate purchase a ruse.

“We haven’t seen the report, and that is what we want,” Murphy said. “It isn’t the City Council I’m complaining about personally. It’s their legal advice.”

Councilman Tom Harman, an attorney, directly challenged the city attorney during this week’s council meeting. He cited three incidents, including the council’s closed-session decision in October not to renew the police union’s lease of the controversial shooting range.

Hutton defended her decisions, saying the council decided later to take another vote on the shooting range in public because “it wasn’t worth the fight.”