School Board Alleged Brown Act Violation Not Corrected

By Anna Pier

At their December 13 meeting, the Board of Trustees of the Sonoma Valley Unified School District conducted the election of new officers without allowing for public comment. The Brown Act, which governs the conduct of all public bodies, clearly states that a government entity must allow for public comment prior to the vote on any action. In a series of emails with community member David Eichar, Superintendent Jeanette Rodriguez-Chien acknowledged the issue, and promised that a new election would be held at the next Board meeting.

Originally notified of this violation in an email on December 17 from Eichar, Dr. Chien responded with an email the morning of December 20, stating, “Thank you for bringing this concern to my attention. I am in the middle of investigating this further and will get back to you with a specific course of action as soon as I can. We appreciate your involvement and understanding.”

The Superintendent’s response to Eichar’s notification came by email later that day. She referenced the issue of failing to provide for public comment prior to the election of officers and stated, “At the District’s next Governing Board meeting, it intends to conduct the election of its officers once again, with the opportunity for the public to make comment on the item.”

However, when the Agenda for the January 16 meeting of the Trustees was sent out from the Superintendent’s office on January 10, it included no election item, only public comment on the election of officers. Eichar wrote to Dr Chien on January 12 to request an explanation for the absence of an election. She replied to Eichar on January 14. Here is the full text:

“Yes, I had to clarify how we could proceed with this item and as a result have added the public comment to this month’s agenda. After hearing public comment, the board of trustees will determine if they would like to proceed with a re-election process. If so, this process will be put on the February board meeting agenda. If put on the agenda in February, you will see it on the open session part of the agenda. Please know that we want to ensure transparency and hearing community input is valuable.”

In response to the Sun’s inquiry regarding this change from a previously clearly-stated plan, Dr Chien refuted the alleged Brown Act violation, and stated, “To clarify what happened, the Board typically opens public comment before an agenda item. However, in this situation there was no one in the room and a request for public comment was not explicitly stated. We did receive a complaint from Mr. Eichar and although not legally considered a Brown Act violation, we decided to put the public comment on this month’s agenda to conform to past practice.”

It is unclear the reason for public comment on a vote taken at a previous meeting. It appears to be an empty pro forma exercise that does not correct the Brown Act violation.

The election itself was surprising in that it was held at a public meeting in the morning, which was not transmitted to the community by SVTV; and the traditional practice of selecting the current Vice-President to become the new President was not followed. Trustee Catarina Landry was elected President, not Celeste Winders who, as Vice-President, has served as President Pro-Tem of the Board since Troy Knox resigned his position in the summer. In a still more surprising vote, the newest trustee, Jason Lehman, who was sworn in at the previous meeting, was elected Vice-President.