Council conduct at issue

Alicia Robinson

City Council members are required by law to conduct public business

openly, but does that mean they can’t pass notes to each other about

public business at a public meeting?

Costa Mesa City Councilwoman Linda Dixon believes three of her

colleagues violated the Ralph M. Brown Act -- the state’s open

meetings law -- when they circulated a note at a May 17 meeting.

Dixon filed a complaint with the city June 16 alleging Councilman

Eric Bever passed a note to Mayor Allan Mansoor and Councilman Gary

Monahan to urge consensus on how to spend some city funds.

The council on Tuesday will discuss how to address Dixon’s

complaint, which the three councilmen have dismissed as unfounded.

City Attorney Kimberly Hall Barlow recommends the council take new

votes on how to spend contributions from C.J. Segerstrom & Sons and

IKEA, which were under discussion when the note was passed.

Reconsidering the items should clear up any confusion about the funds

without necessarily admitting a Brown Act violation occurred, Barlow

has said.

Bever said he’s amenable to taking new votes on the IKEA and

Segerstrom funds, but he doesn’t think he violated the Brown Act by

passing a note to colleagues.

“I’m certainly willing to do that if it clears the air and allows

us to move on,” he said. “I can understand [Dixon’s] initial

concerns; beyond that, I believe the issue is without merit.”

Dixon could not be reached for comment Friday.

At the May 17 meeting, the council voted to spend part of the

$200,000 Segerstrom donation on the historic Estancia Adobe and the

remainder on maintenance of the Segerstrom homestead. Next, council

members agreed to spend a majority of an IKEA donation on Angels

Playground, a playground at TeWinkle Park designed for

developmentally disabled children, and put some toward athletic

facilities for Costa Mesa’s two high schools.

The Brown Act issue is clear-cut to Councilwoman Katrina Foley,

who says she happened to see the note on the table.

“The note said ‘Let’s take Angels Playground up with the IKEA

money,’” she said. “ ... I don’t know how else you can interpret

that.”

What bothers Foley, she said, is that after Dixon questioned

Mansoor about the note, he crumpled it up and left the council

chambers.

But Mansoor said council members sometimes pass notes, and there

was nothing wrong with this instance of it.

“The point is no one tried to gain any consensus,” he said.

The complaint, and the actions that led to it, may have deepened

the rift between some council members.

“We have differences of opinion but I wouldn’t have expected

this,” Foley said. “I think everyone’s aired their views. I’m just

sorry that it’s caused these two items to have to be reviewed. It’s a

shame and it was completely unnecessary.”