Unauthorized videotape reveals La Habra Heights Mayor Layne Baroldi violated CA's open meeting laws

California law (Brown Act) requires local government bodies allow public input and comment during open meetings. Watch as the mayor picks up the speakers card and proceeds to ignore the request to speak during a special meeting of the La Habra Heights City Council. To make matters worse, the proceedings were not videotaped even though both staff and equipment is clearly visibly present to do so.

Upon confrontation of the violation, Mayor Baroldi and City Attorney both denied the willful omission until realizing that unauthorized video support existed. City Attorney Sandra Levin also denied being in the room when the violation was made. She was then informed that a video existed and showed her present. Ms. Levin then requested to review it to support the publics argument.

"The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist they may retain control over the instruments they have created."

La Habra Heights Mayor Layne Baroldi accused of leading "Black Ops" style meeting.

Full story: www.lahabraheights.net

La Habra Heights, CA - Residents here are concerned over a special meeting of the city council that occurred on May 13th at 5:45 p.m. In which there was no notice on the City's website nor media advisory released.

Yet, the City paid cameraman was there, the live webcast streaming equipment was set up and ready to go, but nevertheless, the meeting was not recorded, webcast nor broadcast. A resident submitted a card for public comment, but no public comment was allowed, in violation of California's open meeting law, The Brown Act.

Later, a senior City Staff member denied being at the public portion of the meeting, and said that another staff person, City Manager Shauna Clark was not there either, but an unauthorized video on YouTube shows them both present and also shows Mayor Baroldi picking up the public speaker's card and proceeding to ignore it

The meeting or agenda is also not shown on the log of City Council meetings, as if it never occurred. A limited number of paper agenda copies were available, with one obtained by this reporter.

The current council has taken a hard line against residents; removing almost all citizen volunteer committees, cracking down on residents' ability to comment at meetings, passing Code changes to facilitate Urban Estates over the almost unanimous objection of residents and banning bicycles at the City Park's hardscaped areas.

Long time resident and former Council member Judy Hathaway-Francis commented at a recent Council meeting about all the items on the consent calendar, which get approved without discussion.

Important matters, such as the Assembly Bill to exempt La Habra Heights from State housing quotas, and the recent ISO Report citing a dramatic rating decline of the Fire Department were never agenized or discussed by the Council in public. In contrast, the 2007 ISO Report was released to the public and put on the City Council agenda for public discussion and review.

Some residents wonder if these types of matters are being discussed by the Council by other means, or if other "Black Ops" meetings have occurred that were neither posted on the City website nor recorded.

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