Oakley Should Postpone Tuesday’s Special Meeting

It would be prudent for the City of Oakley to cancel their so called “special meeting” this Tuesday while simultaneously work to become more transparent to the public regarding what exactly will be discussed at this meeting.

Details are non-existent while the time of the meeting is suspect in itself. At 2:00 pm on a Tuesday, it ensures as little public participation as possible and little chances to speak during Agenda Item 3 which my best guess will basically be a two-to-three hour discussion on a variety of city issues.

Adding to the confusion is the meeting is not being held at City Hall, but instead at 1250 O’Hara Ave.  Keep in mind, because the meeting is no longer at City Hall, the meeting will also not be recorded for public viewing.

But what is tragic here is for the second year in a row there is an issue with this type of meeting and it can be traced back to the City Staff’s lack of respect for the public to participate. If you recall, last year’s meeting was rescheduled at the very last minute because of a would-be Brown Act Violation had the meeting occurred while this year is a similar situation with a lack of transparency witthin the agenda.

For example, Agenda Item Three (3) states City Council – City Staff Team Facilitation Discussion.  Say what?  That could mean anything and everything and the city could defend it, but it doesn’t make it right. It’s too vague while there is no staff report accompanying the agenda.

Who from the city staff will be participating with the council? What items will be discussed from city staff? What are the department topics that will be talked about? The list goes on and the sad part is it’s pretty simple information. Heck, the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District put out their agenda of a similar meeting they will host which has about 8-bullet items of what could potentially be discussed, so why can’t Oakley offer the same courtesy?

More importantly, Item 3 is such a broad topic that the mayor should have rejected it prior to the announcement going out and requested more detail being provided to the public. A better way would have been to have each city department on its own agenda item to allow the public to speak on a particular department.

Here is a look at the full agenda which did not include a staff report:

AGENDA

1.      Welcome & Introductions

2.      Public Comments

3.      City Council – City Staff Team Facilitation Discussion

4.      Adjournment

Source – City of Oakley

The lack of effort with this agenda and lack of a detailed staff report is disrespectful to Oakley residents—I don’t say this lightly, but quite it’s a slap in our face. I am offended at what the city staff is trying to pull with this meeting and the city council should not put up with it.

For example, we have what I will call a “Public Works Crisis” currently on our hands in Oakley.

Had there been an agenda item specifically for Public Works, the room would probably be filled with Downtown Business and residents frustrated with the lack of oversight on the Main Street Project which began last August and it’s now February. You then have the issue now on Neroly Rd. where construction was just completed with shoddy patch work leaving Neroly as one of the worst roads in East County. Where is the urgency by city staff to fix it?

You have an Economic Development Department essentially picking and choosing winners and whom to provide financial assistance too.  That needs to be looked at more closely.  You also have City staff consistently promoting the You, Me, We = Oakley while ignoring other fabulous programs/non-profits within Oakley.

Moving on, had there been an agenda item on the City Manager, there likely would be a packed room to discuss obvious changes that need to be made.

For example, in what should have been discussed in public during a council meeting on free rent and accommodations to business, the city manager and his staff simply offered reduced rent, eliminated Cam fees, negotiated free March rent for several businesses, paid for newspaper advertising, and allowed signage for downtown businesses to be placed along Main Street. Of course, even with all the freebies, the city still managed to find a way to be sued by Hook, Line & Sinker.

The point is, those decisions are something the city manager should not be making behind the scenes by himself, but instead vetted by the council in a public setting because the city is not the landlord, the taxpayers are!

The other issue that would likely come up (because I would bring it up) are the pre-council meeting lunches by Mayor Kevin Romick and Bryan Montgomery in Pittsburg (64-times) at a cost of $20-$32 per meeting.  Going forward, this practice should stop immediately. The explanation I got was it was during Romick’s lunch–funny, he could make it to Oakley for a 2:00 pm special meeting.

Going a step further, between 2009-2011, Oakley taxpayers paid a total of 81-meals between Montgomery and Romick.  During that same time period, just for perspective, the next highest person was Bruce Connelly and Tom Williams/ISD at 5-meals each.

Other’s to note include Carol Rios (4), Pat Anderson (4), Tom Williams/ISD (4) Hugh Henderson (3), Federal Glover (3)—records were obtained through Bryan Montgomery’s credit card statements which was an 80-page report at a cost of just under $20.

I could go on, but you get the point.

So while the this meeting is being classified as a team building exercise to the Contra Costa Times, then there should be no problem with including a staff report or accurate agenda.

Ultimately, this meeting should be postponed for many reasons but most importantly is there are potential Brown Act Violations just as there were last year–only difference is instead of not sending out the agenda in a timely manner, this year they failed to provide an agenda with information on it.

Oakley residents deserve much better than the quality of effort we are getting from City staff and this poor excuse of an agenda is the simplest form of proof that the City of Oakley has a communication problem with its residents.

Instead of team building exercises, the staff should first work on improving its communication skills and learn to have some respect of its residents in the process.

I urge the council to cancel this meeting and reschedule once staff has decided to provide some meat and potatoes within the agenda.