2.22.12 After a year of fighting for public disclosure, we finally received one part of the larger records request that had been denied by the former city attorney David Martinek. The settlement agreement with former city manager Nancy Flemming has finally been released as required by state law. We appreciate the new city attorney, Russell Gans, following the public record laws that apply and we look forward to receiving the rest of our requested records; particularly the settlement agreement with former public works director Jim Hale and the investigative report into the department. The whole records request saga can be viewed here. Settlement agreements are public records because they involve public funds (once the settlement becomes final). Note that the agreement says Flemming voluntarily resigned as of July 7, 2009 but the agreement was signed at the end of the year. Why enter into a settlement agreement at all with someone who is said to have simply quit of her own accord? Flemming received her salary for another approx. 3 months in addition to a car allowance of $400 and an insurance reimbursement of $645 each month for three months after quiting (benefit time was paid out as well).

Last night, the city council held a study session regarding proposed changes to the animal control ordinance (included in the council packet). Increases to fees and licensing will be coming up very soon as part of the updates. The meeting was dominated by council member Jack Thompson and his ideas for changes to the ordinance targeting dogs and dog owners. On multiple occasions it was noted that Thompson is having a neighbor fight at his home with what sounds like a barking nuisance dog; this conflict appears to be guiding his ideas for changes. The meeting video will be coming shortly so you can review it for yourself. Thompson proposed requiring dogs that bark at people walking by their property to be muzzled all the time in their own yards! Dogs are territorial and naturally protect their home, muzzling them everytime they are outside is cruel and potentially dangerous to the dog who can't open their mouths to pant, etc. The ordinance had recommended that a dog barking for 30 minutes or more could be called in to the police as a nuisance; Thompson requested that changed to 15 minutes and the other council members agreed. When the council began discussing licensing for multiple dogs, Thompson stated his belief that low income people often neglect their animals and let them run wild. He proposed requiring people to bring their financial information to the police department to apply for dog licenses and they would determine if they were financially "worthy" of having dogs. You will have to review the video to get the full effect of the offensive proposal. I would like to note that the most neglectful and abusive animal owners I have ever known of had money; they were simply cruel heartless awful human beings and money had nothing to do with it. It should also be noted that Thompson often likes to rail against 'big government' and the U.N. conspiracy to take over the world (Agenda 21) one smart meter at a time and espouse the bumper sticker "don't tread on me" attitude. That stands in stark contrast to his government regulation/big brother approach that would require disclosure of financial data to the police just for the right to own a dog. The animal control ordinance will be coming before the council in a regular meeting along with fee and licensing increases. It is inappropriate to try and use a position on the council for personal advantage in this neighbor fight and change city wide ordinances as a result.

FYI-The city council voted to increase the water deposit for new utility customers to $100 last night. The sewer deposit will be increased to $200 in an upcoming meeting.

-Sharon

2.11.12 Welcome to the new year! The most significant update from last year is that the Rio Dell Plaza proposal is dead in the water. The property owner and the city couldn't agree on terms so the project is off the table at this time. The city is focused now on a proposal to take out a $2.8 million bond for "city wide" street paving which will have to go before the voters in the June election. The council has approved the proposal and they will be working on the details to get that on to the ballot. The average property owner in Rio Dell will be looking at an anticipated increase in their annual property taxes between $122 - $215 for the bond measure. This is just for paving, there will not be any repairs or upgrades included. Keep a close eye on this one as it develops since it will affect the pocketbook of everyone, owners and renters alike. We will continue to post all of the available information that we can. Rio Dell has some of the worst streets in the county but we have serious concerns about the city's ability to competently complete any project without major problems based on years of past experience.

We recently received a letter from the new city attorney Russell Gans regarding our year long quest for public records which said they would finally release former city manager Nancy Flemming's settlement agreement with the city. We have asked repeatedly for both Flemming and former Public Works Director Jim Hale's settlement agreements with the corresponding vote by each council member along with "any and all documents/information-from 2003 to the present-pertaining to any investigation involving public works, including but not limited to any investigative reports." The initial response from Gans said they agreed with us that the settlement document was a public record subject to release (we already knew that) and that he would release it by Feb. 10th but made no mention of the settlement agreement with Hale. The letter went on to say they weren't going to release the investigative report requested because it was allegedly written by former city attorney David Martinek and was therefore protected as a work product and attorney/client privilege.

Yesterday we received a letter saying that the release would be delayed due to the "party affected" (Flemming I presume) claiming privacy protection and threatening to sue the city "for injunctive relief to prevent disclosure." The letter went on to cite a recent appeals court case, Marken v. Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (Jan. 24, 2012) as part of the rationale. The letter said there would be a copy of the case enclosed for our review, which there wasn't, but it is readily available online (the linked copy includes some of my own highlights for emphasis). I sure hope Flemming or her attorney reads this case because it absolutely supports 100% our request for the records, especially the investigative report! The plaintiff, Marken, sued to prevent the release of an investigation and letter of reprimand he received while working for a school district and he cited the same privacy right that Flemming is allegedly asserting. Marken lost the case and the records were released (with redaction of names other than his own); the court stated "the public's interest in discloure of this information--the public's right to know--outweighs Marken's privacy interest in sheilding the information from disclosure." The involved case included an investigative report done by an attorney for the school district into the allegations (exactly as Martinek claims the requested report was done) yet the court found it subject to disclosure. Take a look at some of the highlighted areas such as pages 24-26 in the linked document and you will see that there is no doubt the investigative report is subject to disclosure. It has already been established that the city can't be sued for releasing documents subject to disclosure so that is a non-issue. There will be a response letter written that we will link for further discussion of the issue. We are not going to give up the quest for these public documents but the city is trying everything possible to block the release; why? Stay tuned...