Having just returned from a three week African vacation I am blogging a current story from the Mission Viejo Dispatch blog. www.missionviejodispatch.com
While this story relates to school closings in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District and may have entailed a statute of limitation concern, there was no justification in bypassing the city council where the council majority are rubber stamps for the city manager.
In prior years we had called for Special Meetings of the council for emergencies.
Millions of Americans were outraged when our congressional representatives approved massive spending programs without reading the proposed legislation yet here we have an illustration that an action was just taken prior to the city council viewing the law suit.
City Files Lawsuit Without Prior Authority From Council: Brown Act Violation?
by MissionViejoDispatch.com on September 15, 2009
At September 8’s City Council meeting, the City Attorney reported the Council approved litigation against the Saddleback School District on a 3-1-1 vote during its 5 p.m. closed session. Yesterday the Dispatch checked with the OC Superior Court to see if the lawsuit had been filed. Surprisingly, the filing was made on September 8, before the Council vote.
The situation raises questions about the relationship between staff and council. Does staff assume it can proceed with significant actions because it has a rubber-stamp Council majority? Or did the Council majority give the thumbs up to City Attorney Bill Curley before its meeting, which would clearly be a violation of the Brown Act? The OC Register was incorrectly led to believe in a September 9 article the suit was being filed on the 9th, after the meeting.
It was the City Clerk’s understanding from Curley that the suit was filed without authority because of a statutory deadline. Evidently staff determined the filed lawsuit wouldn’t be served on SVUSD if not subsequently approved by the Council.
That logic seems strained. First, a lawsuit is a serious matter to put on court and public records without authorization, even if later dismissed. Second, considerable legal time and City expense went into preparing the filed complaint, without being pre-approved. Third, it would have been easy enough to schedule an earlier special or emergency meeting of the Council to consider approval of the litigation.
The complaint is aimed at forcing the Saddleback Trustees into conducting a full environmental report (EIR) regarding the conversion of O’Neill Elementary School for use by the District’s Recreation Department, and for using some classrooms for adult education. SVUSD says four classrooms will be used for classes of 12-15 adults. The conversion has already been implemented.
The Council’s stated goal is to re-open O’Neill, but the former students are already attending other schools. It seems questionable that a sufficient number of students could or would return at semester break, even if an EIR were ordered.
Earlier this year parents of the affected children proposed a charter school at O’Neill. The application was not approved by the School Board, but the parent group has not exercised its right to appeal the application to the Orange County Board of Education. At the July 20 meeting of the Council, parents urged the Council to carry the ball, but the Council has also failed to initiate an appeal.
At that July meeting the Council adopted a resolution to call on Superintendent Fish and the Trustees to re-open O’Neill or conduct a full environmental report. At the same meeting the Council authorized a $15,000 resident survey to determine opinions about SVUSD, O’Neill, and forming a new MV School District. The survey was to be completed by September 1, but the results have not yet been publicly released.
The Council has another environmental lawsuit pending against Capo School District – for its reduction in student busing. Saddleback subsequently took similar action on busing, drastically cutting routes, but the busing issue wasn’t included in the lawsuit against SVUSD. Mayor Frank Ury, formerly defrocked by voters as a Trustee in the Saddleback District, has led the Council on a belligerent and costly path against both Capo and Saddleback. Fellow Councilman Lance MacLean joined in by angrily advocating throwing everything, “including the kitchen sink,” into the suit against Capo.
The Council is frustrated because it feels MV schools have not received their fair share of resources from the Districts. It also believes some schools have deteriorated because low-performing students have been imported from outside Mission Viejo, and that some boundaries are not practical in terms of travel distances. If the grand scheme of the Council majority is to achieve financial parity with new school boundaries, that process must go through the OC Board of Education and the California Board of Education, not through the courts in the form of strategic environmental lawsuits.
It appears the City may be seeking leverage from the lawsuits, but Superintendent Fish opined to the Register that only Mission Viejo’s attorneys would benefit, not the kids.
Glad you’re back on the job, Larry. The folks in city hall must be watched at all times. This article reports another example of officials gone bad.
Those who watched the council meeting on Sept. 8 noted that MacLean “called in his votes” from Arizona. How was he permitted to do that? Larry must now work overtime to expose yet another illegal act.
MV Resident.
While I can’t comment on the legality of a teleconference council member vote I can report that the City Council Minutes of the Sept 8th meeting include the REPORT OF CLOSED SESSION on page 2 where it reads in part that “The city council authorized commencement of a CEQA action against the Saddleback Valley Unified School District relating to the closure of O’Neil School. That action will commence immediately.”
One problem, as covered by the Mission Viejo Dispatch editor Brad Morton. The litigation was filed with the court PRIOR TO this action being taken.
Who authorized the contracted city attorney to file any lawsuit prior to a council vote of approval, and, why is he not being chastised for that improper action? Once again we have a council majority asleep at the switch with no backbone.
Council majority members who are asleep at the wheel have either missed a lot of things or they don’t care. Trish Kelley is incapable of understanding city business. Ury cares only about himself. He either didn’t know or didn’t care that Crown Valley Pkwy was a long way from completion when he pronounced it “finished.” Look what these goofballs allowed — clutter on the medians that’s been dubbed a roadway gallery or some such nonsense. Lance MacLean will probably be removed in a recall, but what about Kelley and Ury? Voters, awaken!
MV Taxpayer.
The Petition for Writ of Mandate in this matter, filed by the city’s law firm of RW&G will be addressed in a follow up post. Stay tuned!
I support our city council. The comments that I am reading are unfounded. I go to council meetings and the council members are hard at work. It appears to me that they listen to all sides of issues and make the best decisions based on the facts given to them. I see that they are trying to keep quality education in our city which benefits all of us. If the school district is making decisions that are malevolent to our city, then I expect our city officials to take action. The actions taken by SVUSD to close two top rated schools in the same city seems to unjustly target Mission Viejo. I would think more people would support the city’s efforts to keep our top rated schools open. After all, they are your property values too. Thank you, MV city council, for taking action!
MV Resident.
You apparently are missing the key point of this story. Millions of Americans expressed anger when discovering that our congressional representatives approved massive expenditures without reading the 1000 plus page bill.
How do you feel about that action?
Was is appropriate for the city attorney to file a Petition for Writ of Mandate lawsuit prior to the council seeing the document and voting it up or down?
This is not the private sector where you can cut corners. Someone realized that the clock was running out of time and took an action to avoid the time limit that was not authorized. That my friend is the basis of my report.