The story: From The McKinleyville Press: A Trinidad City Councilman’s personal blog has aroused a furor of controversy, leading to accusations by other councilmembers of an invasion of their privacy and a violation of trust.
Councilmembers Kathy Bhardwaj and Julie Fulkerson said they were disturbed to find their private correspondence about city issues posted on Councilman Mike Morgan’s personal blog.
Morgan was careful to say that he was not accusing anybody of violating the Brown Act, but maintains that the councilmembers’ e-mail conversation was “a precarious step in the wrong direction,” and should never have happened in the first place.
◼ McKinleyville Press Uproar over Trinidad Councilman’s Blog
Seems to me... he has a point.
The Blog in Question: ◼ councilmembermikemorgan.blogspot.com
The E-Mails in Question: ◼ Encouraging Controversy and Eroding Trust? - Previous Council's Email "Discussions"
Sorry Rose, this has nothing to do with Trinidad, but just wanted to let you know that a couple of us have been going over to Heraldo and referring to Heraldo as Cobb or Bellknap, or in the alternative David and Kaitlin. Evidently, that is a bit of a sore spot-a-roonie for H as Heraldo deletes those references everytime.
ReplyDeleteAre ya listening Hank. Having fun here. Want to join in?
Same thing has been going on with me for a long time. cobberaldo will do anything to block the truth. It is connected to this story because Katlin can lie all the way home on her and David's blog yet be ever so sweet in her phony persona on the water board. They would never tolerate that from a conservative office holder.
ReplyDeleteRose, I don't suppose you have a link to the blog itself?
ReplyDeleteYeah - it is up there, but here it is - it's very interesting...
ReplyDeletehttp://councilmembermikemorgan.blogspot.com/2008/12/trinidad-city-council-notice-and-call.html
How hard is it to go to City Hall and look up a construction permit? What a bunch of dumb hypocrites.
ReplyDeleteI guess some people are not ready for “transparent” government. Too bad. People who are worried about this happening need to put a disclaimer on the bottom, “Not to be duplicated or shared with the public.”
ReplyDeleteYour emails as a public official are subject to Freedom Of Information Act requests, Richard.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting story. It'll be interesting to see where it goes. This guy has a point.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteSorry Rose, this has nothing to do with Trinidad, but just wanted to let you know that a couple of us have been going over to Heraldo and referring to Heraldo as Cobb or Bellknap, or in the alternative David and Kaitlin. Evidently, that is a bit of a sore spot-a-roonie for H as Heraldo deletes those references everytime.
Are ya listening Hank. Having fun here. Want to join in?
Nah, Hank would rather make lame excuses about how it doesn't matter (even contradicting himself in this case since he said he did want to find out who Heraldo is/are) and attack you for bringing up Cobb in the first place.
Here are a few past examples of BROWN ACT controversies: (From The Journal)
ReplyDeleteWHY THE BROWN ACT MATTERS 1997 From the Publisher
FOLLOWING BROWN ACT LAWSUIT Letter
THE GRAND JURY REPORTS From the Publisher
TWO-TIERED CIVIC RIGHTS Opinion
COUNTY RESPONDS TO ALLEGATION From The Publisher
Open meeting violations? 2003 In The News (Ferndale)
Then there were allegations in Trinidad:
rotten borough
To ask for e-mails and correspondence it is not Freedom of Info Act it is Public Records. All correspondence between Board or Council members are public documents. It does appear that by sending each other e-mails and responding about what they think should be done this was indeed a serial meeting without it even being on an agenda. Should have been discussed with staff re any concern and let staff either find out, handle it or put it on an agenda for open discussion. All of the Trinidad Council persons should have taken a class on ethics, etc. that all boards and council members are required to take which esplains conflict of interest, Brown Act along with other things. Did they take the course or not? If they did then why are they sending e-mails to each other as they should understand this is not allowed. Two members can talk on each other but when a third gets involved it is Brown Act violation.
ReplyDeleteAt least two people on that e-mail chain should have known better.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there was any malicious intent. this is merely a slip up, because they weren't being cognizant of the rules.
I expect this will help everyone in every elected office remember the rules.
Who is this Hagan guy and what kind of a lame lawyer is he for taking part in these emails which obviously violated the Brown Act. Hope he is working for free and not charging the city.
ReplyDeleteWhen shit hits the fan over this seems he may be responsible to the city for not doing his job to stop the Brown violations from continuing.
Just a thought.
Oops. And we though Hagen was our last, best hope to beat Gallegos.
ReplyDeleteTime to give Peter Martin a call then, he seems like the only other former prosecutor willing to stand up to Gags.
Rose wrote: "I expect this will help everyone in every elected office remember the rules." I agree with you. It appears they needed a reminder about how this is supposed to work.
ReplyDelete"Your emails as a public official are subject to Freedom Of Information Act requests, Richard."
ReplyDeleteThat is the case when the email is from a government address or saved on a government computer. Lawyers disagree about whether the law applies to personal email accounts.