PD Editorial: Open forum on Santa Rosa council openness

Should the Santa Rosa City Council release agendas and council packets at least two days earlier than it does now to give the public more time to review items before they go to a vote?

Should Santa Rosa City Hall have a formal appeal process for when citizens’ requests under the Public Records Act are rejected?

Does Santa Rosa need to hire a public records coordinator or public information officer to ensure that the city does a more thorough job of complying with state open government laws and any new policies the council adopts in the coming months?

These are just a few of the questions that have been the focus of the mayor’s Open Government Task Force, which plans to present its recommendations to the City Council next month.

These also are some of the questions that will be addressed tonight at a Santa Rosa City Council candidate forum sponsored by the San Rafael-based First Amendment Coalition and The Press Democrat. The focus of this, the latest in a series of debates involving the eight active council candidates, is on government transparency and responsiveness to the public.

It’s a hot button issue for Santa Rosa given a series of incidents in the past year that have called into question the city’s commitment to transparency.

Mayor Scott Bartley announced the formation of the 11-member task force at the start of the year after a tense period that began with the shooting death of 13-year-old Andy Lopez in October. At the time, council members were urged by city officials not to say anything for fear of compromising the Santa Rosa Police Department’s review of the county deputy-involved shooting.

Some council members and members of the public questioned that directive as well as a decision to shut down City Hall and cancel a council meeting in response to a peaceful march related to the Lopez shooting. There also have been disagreements with the way the city has handled the release of information about council decisions made in closed session, its responsiveness to requests under the California Public Records Act and the freedom of council members to speak in general terms about issues, such as labor negotiations, discussed in closed session.

According to a draft of policy recommendations that the task force plans to present to the council, the panel is calling for some significant changes. These include recommending the hiring of a public information officer to oversee the city’s compliance with transparency laws and Public Records Act requests. The panel also is likely to recommend that the city go back to having a limited public comment period at the beginning of council meetings rather than at the end, update its website and issue a quarterly report identifying any legal settlements of more than $50,000 decided in closed session. The task force also plans to recommend that the council develop a formal appeal process for those whose Public Records Act requests are turned down. But there is no specific recommendation on what that appeal process should look like.

We’ll reserve full judgment until the recommendations are presented to the council. But it’s clear that the task force is headed in the right direction. Whether the eight candidates competing for three open seats on the City Council agree - and where they believe changes should be made or not - we hope to learn tonight.

The forum, which will be moderated by First Amendment Coalition Executive Director Peter Scheer and Press Democrat Editorial Director Paul Gullixson, will be held at the Santa Rosa downtown library from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. tonight. The audience will be invited to submit questions. Councilwoman Robin Swinth, co-chair of the Open Government Task Force, also will be on hand to give a brief update of the committee’s work.