Santa Rosa officials call for more transparency

Santa Rosa's sunshine ordinance needs to be a little brighter than the draft being circulated if it's going to bring true openness and transparency to City Hall.

That was the conclusion of the City Council on Tuesday, which urged staff to beef up and broaden the scope of proposed law meant to codify how the city engages with the public.

Such a law was one of the key recommendations of the city's Open Government Task Force, which was formed in response to charges of a culture of secrecy at City Hall that came to a head following the shooting of 13-year-old Andy Lopez.

While there was plenty of praise of the work that went into the draft to date, several council members characterized it as a first step in need of significant revision and public outreach.

“This is not just about opening up our records and putting our information out there. This is about having a two-way conversation with the community,” Chris Coursey said.

The study session was designed to solicit input from the public and the council. But despite the project being spearheaded by the city's new community engagement coordinator, few members of the community were in attendance.

Peter Stanley, a planning commissioner and member of the now-defunct task force, told the council he thinks a far more robust community conversation needs to happen than the public meetings next month in preparation for adoption in May.

Stanley submitted several pages of suggestions to improve the draft. In general, he said it should not just codify the processes the city already follows that go above and beyond what is required by the Brown Act, the state's open meeting law, and the Public Records Act. Rather it should help the community get the information it needs about its government.

“We felt that this needed to be more than just a guide for staff, that it needed to be a manual for the community,'' Stanley said.

In many cases, the draft law merely confirms practices that have been followed for years, such as the requirement that meetings be recorded, televised and streamed online. The Brown Act has no such requirement.

In other cases, the draft codifies more recent practices undertaken after the task force completed its work, such as the requirement for the City Attorney to publicly report all the litigation settled each quarter.

Fowler came under scrutiny in 2013 when she didn't disclose in public session that the City Council agreed to pay $327,000 in legal fees to a law firm that has successfully challenged a special city tax on new developments. She claimed the Brown Act did not require disclosure at that time.

Several council members said it was difficult to tell which proposals in the draft were new versus which were current practice.

Fowler said she felt the most significant proposal was to make staff reports available to the public online earlier than the city already does.

Currently, under an agreement reached years ago with the Sierra Club after the group sued over the city's process for posting agendas, the city makes staff reports available to the public 12 days before a council meeting in hard copy form at the front counter of the City Manager's Office.

Those will now go online 12 days beforehand, instead of five, which is the current practice.

Another is the proposal that the city respond to routine Public Record Act requests in three days if possible. The state law gives all public agencies 10 days to even acknowledge receipt of such a request.

Those whose requests are denied will have the ability to appeal to the full council.

Councilwoman Julie Combs said she was “a little disappointed” in the draft. She said in her mind, open government meant inclusion, access and participation.

“If we don't have those three in this document, then we're missing something,” she said.

Mayor John Sawyer agreed with Stanley that the ordinance needs to read more like a guide that regular residents can understand.

“Wherever we can create clarity, wherever we can create understanding, that will create access,” Sawyer said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.