I recently attended a meeting of the Lower Lake Community Action Group (LLCAG) where candidates for Konocti Unified School District Board of Trustees were hosted as guests and given an opportunity to speak and answer questions regarding School District Business. All three incumbents and myself had dinner at the head table along with the Dean of Yuba College, Clearlake Campus. It was a wonderful meeting and a great opportunity to meet and greet members of the community of Lower Lake. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of LLCAG for inviting me and for working with me on my time constraints.
My only concern about that meeting is that three of the five members of the current KUSD School Board were present at the same function, speaking about issues directly related to the business of the School Board and KUSD. Is this not in violation of the Brown Act? This is the same act cited to me repeatedly regarding myself and some of the other candidates having children on the same soccer team, in the same grade/class at school, etc.
Although this meeting was not a violation of the Brown Act, it is certainly more questionable than soccer and elementary school contact with board members. In fact there was enough question regarding this issue that the Judge”s Breakfast, which all board member candidates attended and each of us spoke about our platforms, chose to reschedule one of the incumbents so as to avoid the possibility of a Brown Act violation occurring.
Should we only be citing these laws and regulations when they apply in our favor, or do we want members of our government, representing our interests, to stand up for what is right whomever it favors?
Gina Fortino Dickson
Clearlake
Editor”s note: The Brown Act states that the “attendance of a majority of the members of a legislative body at an open and publicized meeting organized to address a topic of local community concern by a person or organization other than the local agency” is allowable, “provided that a majority of the members do not discuss among themselves, other than as part of the scheduled program, business of a specific nature that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body of the local agency.”
