Trustees will consider limits on public input at meetings

By Rebecca Ray

At the Aug. 2 West Valley-Mission Community College District board meeting, trustees will vote on policy changes that will affect members of the public who wish to address the board. One trustee said that some of the changes would effectively "muzzle" the public, while the chancellor said they would keep the meetings moving.

At the most recent board meeting, on July 19, at Mission College, board members voted on what changes they would consider at the Aug. 2 meeting, which will take place at West Valley College. One of the changes will be giving the board president the option to move the "oral communications from the public" portion of the meeting--during which members of the public can address the board on non-agendized items--to later in the meeting.

This would happen if oral communications takes longer than 30 minutes. Under the current policy, the president can move oral communications to later in the meeting if discussion on one topic takes longer than 15 minutes.

Other changes include having the minutes-taker record only action items, rather than action items and summaries of speakers' positions during discussions. The board will also consider retaining audio tapes for just 30 days instead of 12 months, and allowing members of the public to inspect, but not duplicate, these tapes. Changing the deadline to submit requests for agendizing items from seven days prior to the meeting to 15 days prior to the meeting will also be considered.

Chancellor Linda Salter said that board and administrative staff members recommended the changes so the board could maintain control of the meetings and have time to address agendized business. Earlier this year, the oral communications portion took so long--Salter and Trustee Don Wolfe estimate that it took over an hour at one meeting--that Daniel Iacofano, a consultant who'd been paid to speak that night, decided the meeting would end too late if he spoke and postponed his presentation. According to Salter and Wolfe, the district paid Iacofano again to give his presentation at a later meeting.

Trustee Jeffrey Schwartz said the board was using Iacofano's presentation as an excuse and that Iacofano's was the only presentation that has been postponed in the last three years. "The truth is that they can't tolerate criticism or difficult questions," Schwartz said.

Salter said several of the other board members have told her they weren't trying to limit the community's access to the board. They just wanted procedures for orderly meetings, said the chancellor.

Schwartz objects to the board's proposed policy on the minutes because they would no longer reflect questions asked and issues raised by residents.

Salter said the board has spent a significant amount of time at meetings hassling over the minutes of previous meetings, which delays the board from addressing agendized business. She added that every time the board approved revisions, Executive Assistant Rhoda Curry had to listen to the tapes again to make sure the corrections were accurate, and then bring the minutes back to the board for approval.

Schwartz objects to the board's proposed policy on disallowing duplicates of audio tapes of board meetings. He said it violated the state Public Records Act, which states, "the Legislature ... finds and declares that access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in this state."

Monte Sereno City Attorney Robert Logan said that tapes can be made only for the purpose of assisting the minutes-taker and later destroyed. These tapes are not official public records, and, therefore, are not subject to the Public Records Act. If tapes are made to preserve informational content, Logan said, then they must be kept as long as other official public records. Assistant to the Chancellor Albert Moore said that under the district's current policy, tapes of the meetings did not constitute official records of the district's minutes.

On July 19, the board voted down other changes proposed by board and administrative staff members. One proposed change was to give the president the option to move oral communications to later in the meeting if it exceeded 15 minutes, and then limiting those oral communications to 15 minutes. According to Schwartz, another proposed change voted down was listing the deadline to submit agenda requests according to a schedule published by the chancellor's office. Schwartz said this would make it more difficult for people to submit agenda requests, since they would have to obtain a schedule from the chancellor's office.

Technically, on Aug. 2, board members can address changes they voted down July 19. But Moore said it was unusual to do that and that the board most likely wouldn't want to revisit items it had previously addressed.

Schwartz said limiting all of oral communications to 30 minutes would violate the state Ralph M. Brown Act in that it would limit public input. The Brown Act says, "The public is guaranteed the right to provide testimony at any regular or special meeting on any subject which will be considered by the legislative body before or during its consideration of the item."

Los Gatos Town Attorney Orry Korb said the Brown Act generally allowed the chairpersons and governing bodies to set reasonable limits on speaking to facilitate the conduct of the meetings, but that the definition of "reasonable" was debatable.

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