The LA County Board of Supervisors violated the Brown Act in September 2011 so says the LA County District Attorney.  The LA County DA cited the Board for failing to allow the public to attend a meeting with Gov. Brown that had been called to discuss the county’s new responsibility to deal with felons.  Realignment (AB 109), as it is called, is a landmark shift in how California will lock up, supervise and pay for thousands of criminals and parolees.  Realignment has caused the supervisors great consternation as to how they might sway public opinion on the issues of a possible crime spike and that the state might not provide adequate funding for the shift.  To address these concerns the supervisors placed this issue as closed item on their Sept. 26, 2011 agenda.  Their rationale for this was that this was a discussion of “matters posing a potential threat to the public’s right of access to public services or public facilities to [sic] the impact of AB 109,”

Unfortunately the LA County DA, once again, settled for a simple slap on the wrist when in came to punishment.  Their logic was that the supervisors were unlikely to repeat the same error in judgment — well duh!  Of course the supervisors would be unlikely to repeat the same error they never do until they make the exact same error when it comes to another, different matter.  Just as they did several years back when they were caught making a similar error in judgment when they met in closed session to discuss the closure of the King Drew Medical Center (KDMC) Trauma center, (the only one at the time that was seismically built to the new standards in LA County).  They got the exact same reprimand.  Contrite the supervisors held a dog and pony show to “correct” that violation and promised to do better — well that didn’t happen did it.

So at this afternoon’s meeting the supervisors have called a special closed session A022112Special CS meeting to address a lawsuit filed by Calaware.  You can find the Calaware Petition CalawarePetition2-3-12a, and a copy of the DA reprimand district-attorney-brown-act-response.  You’d have thought that the supervisors if they were truly champions of the Brown Act as they pretend they would work with Calaware to address their violation.  But no this is the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors after all and the money they will use to fight the lawsuit is after all not their money, because the taxpayers are footing this lawsuit.

Its actions such as these that validate the belief that the public has that the supervisors have no respect for the public they are elected to serve.