Here's City Att'y Office's Memo To Mayor/Council Re Allegation Of Brown Act (Open Meeting) Violation On <nobr>Dec. 6</nobr> Airport Vote

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Here's City Att'y Office's Memo To Mayor/Council Re Allegation Of Brown Act (Open Meeting) Violation On Dec. 6 Airport Vote

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(Dec. 8, 2016) -- Below is the text of a memo to LB's Mayor and Councilmembers by City Attorney Mike Mais on learning that a complaint letter to the District Attorney's office [by retired Councilwoman Rae Gabelich, whom it doesn't identify] alleges violation of the Brown (open meetings) Act in connection with the Council's Dec. 6 voted action (6-3, Uranga, Austin, Supernaw dissenting) that set Dec. 13 for a study session, authorized certain city staff actions with JetBlue and other airport stakeholders, and set a Jan. 24, 2017 date for Council voted action on a customs facility / international flights.

LBREPORT.com obtained the memo from Assistant City Attorney Mike Mais, who provided it at our request.

[Scroll down for further below.]

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Honorable Mayor and Councilmembers:
We wanted to advise the City Council that today [Dec. 7] we received an inquiry from the Long Beach Press Telegram regarding Agenda Item # 14 that was considered by the City Council last night (December 6, 2016). The Agenda item involved a Council study session proposed for December 13th on the FIS Facility currently under consideration at the Airport. It is likely that the Press-Telegram article will focus, in part, on an alleged "Brown Act" violation relating to the motion that was ultimately adopted by the Council at the conclusion of the agenda item.
We have advised the Press-Telegram that we do not believe that a violation of the Brown Act occurred because the Agenda Item clearly disclosed the topic for discussion which was a "study session" on the FIS. The Council action did in fact set a study session for December 13th, and also set another Council date (January 24, 2017) for further FIS discussion and possible action on the FIS Facility. The motion that was adopted also permits City Staff to contact Airport tenants and interested stakeholders for the purpose of gathering information that may be useful and relevant at either the December 13th study session, or at the following Council meeting in January, 2017. We believe last night's action by the Council, including the adopted motion, was well within the parameters of what the Brown Act requires.
Should you receive any inquiries regarding this matter please feel free to refer them to this office. Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Michael J. Mais
Assistant City Attorney
Long Beach City Attorney’s Office

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As reported yesterday (Dec. 7) by LBREPORT.com as part of our coverage of the Dec. 6 Council customs facility / international flights agenda item, (at this link), retired Councilwoman Rae Gabelich issued a release on Dec. 7 indicating that she had filed a complaint letter with the L.A. County District Attorney's office alleging the Dec. 6 Council action violated the Brown (open meetings) Act. (The Brown (open meetings) Act basically requires all CA government bodies to provide the public with an agenda 72 hours prior to their meetings that lists their scheduled actions.)

In the release, retired Councilwoman Gabelich (a co-founder of neighborhood-supportive LBHUSH2 and spoke at the Dec. 6 meeting) described her complaint letter as objecting to the substitute-substitute motion which included actions that weren't agendized on Dec. 6 Council agenda but were agendized for action at the Dec. 13 agenda, including items that are prerequisites in the process of approving a customs facility / international flights (passenger and cargo that couldn't be limited to JetBlue.)

The Mungo-Price substitute-substitute motion also set a specific date for a decisional Council vote -- Jan. 24 -- which city staff hadn't proposed previously.