As a way to help restore trust in local government, Santa Rosa's open government task force expressed support Thursday for a set of local rules requiring greater transparency than what's called for under state open meeting laws.
Several members suggested the city should establish its own so-called sunshine ordinance that goes further than the minimum requirements outlined in the Brown Act.
"We can't just say 'We didn't do it because the Brown Act said we didn't have to,'" Planning Commissioner Peter Stanley said. "That's not going to settle well with anybody that is showing up for meetings and trying to be involved."
The 11-member task force took no formal action and its recommendations aren't expected to be made to the City Council until later in the year.
But Thursday's discussion made it clear that several members are interested in holding city officials to a higher standard. About a dozen communities in California have local sunshine ordinances, including San Francisco and Alameda County, whose rules the task force reviewed.
Members focused on provisions of those ordinances that require city officials to disclose more information about the settlement of lawsuits. Bruce Kyse, former publisher of The Press Democrat, said it seems to him that city officials use "loopholes" in the Brown Act to justify not reporting settlements unless directly asked.
He cited an instance last year where the City Council agreed in closed session to pay $327,000 in legal fees to a law firm that has successfully challenged a special city tax on new developments. City Attorney Caroline Fowler didn't report the decision during the public portion of the meeting, something she said the Brown Act did not require because additional steps were needed to formalize the settlement. She acknowledged the settlement months later when directly asked about it by a reporter.
Kyse said the episode demonstrates the need for better reporting of settlements.
"When you finish something off, there's got to be some reporting on it other than it going into a file and waiting for someone to ask about it," Kyse said.
One of the sunshine ordinances reviewed by the task force require the city attorney to report settlements at the next council meeting after they become final. The other required settlements to be disclosed on a quarterly basis.
Assistant City Attorney Suzanne Rawlings said the Brown Act is written the way it is to ensure settlements aren't disclosed until they are final. They said the city doesn't announce all legal settlements because it doesn't want to encourage additional lawsuits.
Task Force member George Gittleman suggested that policy highlighted an inherent conflict of interest in having a risk-averse city attorney's office making decisions about open government. Rawlings disagreed. She said city attorneys offer guidance which public officials can choose to follow or not.
Vice Mayor Robin Swinth noted that the council just made such a judgement call at its last meeting when Mayor Scott Bartley called for the full investigation into the behavior of Councilman Gary Wysocky to be made public. An outside attorney hired to conduct the probe had said the details of the investigation were required by law to remain secret. The council is set to discuss the issue Tuesday.
Rawlings stressed that in many cases the city already provides more information than what is required under the Brown Act.
Other ideas discussed for how to improve communication with the public included having a public information officer or regular newsletters from the city manager.
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