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The
City Council has the right to conduct Special Meetings which are usually
called to discuss or vote upon special circumstances. However, our
City Council frequently uses Special Meetings to conduct normal city
business. Special Meetings require only 24 hours notice; regular meetings
require 72 hours. Special Meetings in St. Helena mean that the meetings are
not held in the usual place (often they are in the City Hall Conference
Room with only 8 chairs), are frequently conducted at 7:30AM in the morning,
are un-televised and un-miked and take place on weekday mornings when
people cannot attend. By all counts, it limits public notice, public
attendance and public input. Today there was a Special Mtg. to
discuss and vote on the 2014-15 Budget. The Budget was put
together without a public input process and, even though there was public
comment at the 2 meetings, none of the public concerns were incorporated in
the final version and the Budget was passed as written.
Yesterday,
the City sent a notice of a Special Meeting for tomorrow, 5/29, at 7:30 AM
for a "Conference with legal counsel" for the Calderon lawsuit on
affordable housing. At 7:43AM this morning, 5/28, the City sent a notice of
a Special Meeting also for tomorrow morning but at 8 AM, both in the Conference
Room at City Hall, for "Review/discussion and direction on Draft
General Plan Update".
So that means that TWO
SPECIAL MEETINGS HAVE BEEN CALLED FOR THE SAME DAY, beginning at 7:30 in
the morning in a tiny room at City Hall with no public communication
facilities.
If there was ever a moment when the people
here should turn out en masse to protest this bad, anti-public policy by
the City Council, it is tomorrow at City Hall at 7:30 AM at City
Hall! With this Council, we get what we tolerate -- please attend
to protest this.
Sandy
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