pages: OpenGovernmentCommission/2021-04-05.pdf, 23
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OpenGovernmentCommission | 2021-04-05 | 23 | Commissioner Reid stated the Mayor specifically recognized that the speaker had reached out to City Council prior to the meeting, so the speaker was planned, which is fine, but argues that the public did not truly have an opportunity to weigh in; the Brown Act asks ample time be ensured for people to weigh in; five minutes is not an ample amount of time and no other member of the public came forward; there was no way anyone knew besides the Council and the speaker who knew SB 271 was going to be mentioned or that the legislative agenda was going to be pulled and new information was going to be introduced; it should have been agendized and discussed properly. Commissioner LoPilato stated that she wants to underscore there is nothing nefarious about a community member, lobbyist or advocate reaching out to the Council; typically, how that process might work is a person would reach out after seeing the draft ordinance or resolution; the fact the speaker reached out to Council is not uncommon or nefarious, it is engagement; with this issue, it was a distinction without a difference because ultimately, once that legislative agenda was passed, whether SB 271 was listed on it or not, it fell under public safety and criminal justice reform, which was passed and nobody would have had a chance to weigh in on it anyway because that gives the guidance to the City Manager to decide what happens to bills; based on the way the process for this particular issue unfolds, there is no opportunity to weigh in on each bill, it is just not how the process works; if the Commission wants to make another recommendation some day in some other context that it should work differently, then that is something to explore. Vice Chair Shabazz thanked Mr. Garfinkle for bringing the issue to the Commission; stated there are concerns and interests in a couple different areas. Vice Chair Shabazz moved approval of finding the complaint unfounded consistent with the recommendation of the City's Special Counsel. Commissioner Reid stated in no way is she suggesting that there was anything nefarious at all; she does believe the public is entitled to transparency and to be able to weigh in; if the process is that the City Manager looks at the legislative agenda and decides what to support, it opens up the question of why the legislative agenda was pulled and specific bills were added; it was somehow out of line; there was no way for the public to have known the bills were going to be discussed; the speaker was a lobbyist and no other members of the public commented. Chair Tilos stated when deciding the issue, he feels members are going too deep into the actual bill versus whether it was noticed and the public was able to comment; it should not matter whether the speaker was a lobbyist or a community member; the legislative agenda is a long list of things; he agrees with Commissioner Chen that it will just take a lot of work; he concurs with Commissioner LoPilato's roadmap framework and that it is difficult to navigate 2000 bills individually; there is this over guiding principle of how the City is going to be on the decisions; the specifics of the bills and what transpired in the meeting should not matter, the transparency piece is important. Commissioner Reid stated she agrees with Chair Tilos; it does not matter what the bill is, Meeting of the Open Government Commission April 5, 2021 23 | OpenGovernmentCommission/2021-04-05.pdf |