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October 21, 2021
Moreno Valley City Council Ignores Brown Act
Due to a vacancy in the Moreno Valley City Council, city staff put the usual item on the city council agenda seeking a decision as to whether the council wanted to appoint a replacement or submit it to the voters. Instead, the two councilmembers decided to bull ahead and appoint a replacement immediately. The two councilmembers tried to rationalize this in a back and forth with their city attorney, Steve Quintanilla, but it was like arguing with Trumpsters. "We're stupid and there is no rule saying we can't be stupid." The linked article includes video from the meeting. It appears to me that in addition to going off-agenda, they didn't even take a formal vote on this item. Maybe there is a provision in Robert's Rules (I'm sure it's not in Rosenberg's) saying that if the body is down to only two members and one of them seconds the motion made by the other, it's automatically a unanimous yes vote without having to vote. Maybe that's a rule, but it seems weird.
The justification from the sitting councilmembers seemed to be that they are in a panic and a hurry to repopulate the council. To have made this legal all they needed to do was tell staff to put an item on the next agenda to immediately appoint a replacement — and that next meeting could have been only a few days hence.
Filed under California,Politics | permalink | October 21, 2021 at 08:58 AM
Comments
The Moreno Valley City Council has rescinded the invalid appointment they made on October 19.
Posted by: Ron at Nov 19, 2021 11:30:01 AM
Turns out I wasn't the only one to notice that the two council members failed to actually vote. Moreno Valley resident Robert Palomarez filed a lawsuit based on that fact.
Posted by: Ron at Nov 11, 2021 8:45:22 AM
