Transparency questioned as board recesses, meets privately on COVID-19

Watchdog groups are questioning why the Ventura County Board of Supervisors is taking a three-week break from its regular meetings amid the worsening COVID-19 situation and participating in teleconferences on the topic outside of public view.

The board set its meeting agenda late last year, before the public health emergency was declared. That schedule called for meeting just two to three times a month, but the board kicked up the timetable after Supervisor Steve Bennett asked for meetings every week during the public heath crisis.

So some are asking why supervisors decided to stick with their original recess that took effect after the last board meeting June 23 and ends July 21.

Taxpayer advocate David Grau said the break seems a little ill-timed given the impact of COVID-19 that was never entertained when the board set the calendar last year. 

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"To take that three-week pause to any public meeting may be a bit of a blow to transparency," said the president of the Ventura County Taxpayers Association. 

He said the public has "kind of suffered" because board meetings were held remotely when the County Government Center was closed for roughly three months to prevent spread of the disease. Comments from the public could only be made in writing or through Zoom via videoconferencing and phone calls, not in person during that time.

No replacement

Grau acknowledges that the county's public health officer has the power to act  to contain the virus without the board's approval and that the county public information officer sends out frequent virus updates. Still, he said, those updates are no replacement for the ability of the public to watch the board in action, hear managers provide detailed updates on the situation with the virus and comment in person.

County Executive Officer Mike Powers said it is not essential to hold board meetings for this period of time unless something arises that demands them. He said the board is not taking a three-week break from work and that the local government is continuing to work on ways to contain the pandemic.

"What we need to focus on is doing the work of testing, tracing, quarantining and making sure our hospitals have adequate surge capacity," he said. "One of the most important things is community messaging."

The county is getting the word out to the public via videos, social media, interviews with the media, almost 30 press conferences and collaboration with cities, he said. 

"The amount of outreach we have done is beyond anything we have ever done before," Powers said. 

Board Chairwoman Kelly Long said she asked Powers at a recent board meeting if there were any business items that would require board action during the break. He said he knew of none, Long said, and that the board could always schedule a special meeting if needed.

The board concurred with the decision to stick with the original schedule for the three-week recess, she said. 

17,000 views 

The board meetings have been unusual not only for their popularity but for the detailed briefings from managers that can be seen live. Public health, social services and emergency services officials update the board in real time.

The briefings are closely watched by journalists for newspapers in Ventura and Los Angeles counties that published numerous stories based partly on the managers' presentations.

Board meetings are usually lightly attended except for recognition ceremonies and controversial land-use matters but interest has spiked during the pandemic.

County spokeswoman Ashley Bautista said 17,000 views were recorded of the last meeting on June 23, based on the number for a live stream on the county's Facebook page.

The number of people viewing the meeting directly on the board's website was fewer than 1,300, she said. 

She said the number of people viewing the meetings on the Board of Supervisors' site under normal pre-COVID conditions averages up to 1,000 but usually is well below that.

The reach on social media runs much higher, according to statistics she provided. Over the last two weeks, there have been 935,000 clicks on the county's Facebook page, 1.4 million views of tweets on the county Twitter account and more than 200,000 visits from county residents on Nextdoor, she said.

Bennett, who requested the weekly meetings during the COVID-19 crisis, could not be reached for comment on the decision to abandon that schedule for now.  He took a few days off to go hiking in the backcountry and has irregular cell phone service, an aide said. 

Supervisor John Zaragoza said he was available to meet  "any time." Supervisor Bob Huber, who said he is concerned about the long break with the number of cases rising, said he would meet daily if needed.

Supervisor Linda Parks did not return a call seeking comment. 

Michele Spring, a  regular watcher of the board meetings during COVID, said she can see both sides.

"With everything going on, you should stay working," she said. "At the same time, there's mental health and everybody needs a break."

Newsom's order

Separately, Grau and two California open-government groups say the board's practice of holding private teleconference meetings to review the virus situation also bears watching. Other elected officials are participating in similar meetings.

Under state law, the full board cannot usually meet without a public notice of the event and a way for the public to observe. An exception to public attendance is made for closed-door sessions on litigation, some personnel decisions and negotiations with labor unions.

But the open-meetings rules do not apply to these briefings, an exception that has not been made for any other public emergency, according to the memory of public officials. 

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Attorneys say that's legal because Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended some requirements of the state's open meetings law to allow elected officials to hear updates on the COVID-19  situation. But critics question whether it's right. 

The supervisors are allowed to ask questions during the calls but may not hold discussions or set policy. Powers said legal counsel is on the call to make sure they don't veer off track, but County Counsel Leroy Smith said he has only listened in a couple times to the meetings that have been held one to three times a week.

No minutes of the meetings need be taken under the governor's order. Officials in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties said none are taken at their meetings.  

"We do not keep minutes or notes since the board members cannot give direction, take action nor discuss issues among themselves, and our legal counsel ensures strict compliance with this," said  Mona Miyasato, Santa Barbara County executive officer.

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"But for full transparency, we do plan to post any additional information from the briefings that is not already on our website for the public."  

The value of these briefings is that managers can share information on the changing pandemic right away,  Powers said. 

"We want to be nimble," he said. "Things change."

He disputed suggestions that the telephone meetings — which he described as informational briefings — could be a vehicle to hide facts from the public. He said the county disseminates the same information in various announcements to the community.

"Transparency is absolutely vital to the county and to me," he said.

Unnecessary suspicion

The executive director of California Common Cause, a nonprofit that seeks to build a better democracy, saw no reason why the teleconferences should be closed to the public. Executive Director Jonathan Mehta Stein said some exceptions may be made for sensitive or confidential material, but thought that could be done without shutting the door entirely.

"A universal choice to do this in a closed-door way denies the public information they should be able to see and creates unnecessary suspicion of what is being discussed and what information is not being made public," he said.

Grau said he was surprised to hear of the private teleconferences at such a critical time. 

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"We weren't aware that was going on at all," he said. "That just really is a bit of a disservice to the public to not even know this was ongoing and have the ability to listen in to these proceedings."

At issue is how the public can know whether the elected officials are following the rules set in Newsom's order, said Glen Smith, litigation director of the First Amendment Coalition.

"On the surface it looks OK," he said. "I suppose it's understandable, but I really don’t know how you monitor it."

Kathleen Wilson covers the Ventura County government, including the county health system, politics and social services. Reach her at kathleen.wilson@vcstar.com or 805-437-0271.