Laguna Beach citizens are getting played by their own local government. At the same time I have to wonder who is in charge. They recently got caught in the process of trying to hide legitimate public business from the public view or participation. Then they tried to divert attention away from their own actions by blaming one of their own for reporting the actual crime.
So, what is this all about? When our local government wanted to help a major developer avoid public scrutiny they decided to do it in secret by using a “closed session”. Since state law, the Brown Act, restricts closed meetings, they announced first that the closed session was permissible for “consideration of whether to initiate litigation”. When that didn’t seem to be enough cover they added “significant exposure to litigation”. What is interesting is that it has been reported that no discussion of any kind about any potential litigation or any lawsuit was mentioned during the closed session. So how is that for blowing their cover? The individual who was censured for exposing their bad behavior did commit the worst crime possible—embarrassing a politician. It is OK to deceive but it is not OK to expose.
This all revolved around the actions of an administration that needed to crack down on a major developer who had violated city orders, time and time again, by making promises to play it straight only to violate his own promises. We have someone here who has a different code of ethics than most of the rest of us.
Now the city administration, rather than punishing this developer and forcing him into line, has become his accomplice. Who is going to protect the citizens?
Neil Fitzpatrick, a three-term member of the Laguna Beach City Council and three-term mayor
Hear hear !