ALPINE PLANNING GROUP CENSURES MEMBER LOU RUSSO OVER ALLEGED VIOLATIONS OF ETHICS CODE AND BROWN ACT

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version Share this

 

By Miriam Raftery

Updated with responses from planning group members Russo and Martinez.

June 30, 2017 (Alpine) – The Alpine Community Planning Group (ACPG) voted at its meeting last week to censure member Lou Russo for violation of the Group’s code of ethics. The vote was unanimous with the exception of Russo. 

That code requires members to “conduct themselves in a manner both civil and professional, and to uphold the highest ethical and moral principals” including treating “fellow members with honesty and respect.” Members also acknowledge a duty to provide “honest dissemination of information” and to not “violate the privacy and confidentiality of information entrusted to them.”

Fellow ACPG member George Barnett says Russo has repeatedly sent emails address to him on matters of concern to the planning group, also sending blind copies to media and various other officials ranging from Supervisor Dianne Jacob to the District Attorney to other members of the ACPG.  The latter has resulted in “enticing ACPG members into an ill-advised, and likely illegal, email chain of discussion—an activity of the Group potentially discussing public matters outside the realm of openness and transparency—something forbidden by the Brown Act.”

The Brown Act prohibits the majority of members of any public board from discussing public matters with its jurisdiction outside of a public forum. The law covers all forms of communications, including e-mails.  ECM’s editor was being copied on some of Russo’s emails which included copies to acpg-members@googlegroups.com, all members of the planning group. 

Hitting "reply all" does not go to recipeints who were blind-copied, as this link forwarded by Russo notes. However if anyone hit reply all to an email that was open copied to other board members, it could prompt a discussion that could trigger Brown Act issues for the sender and any other board members who might subsequently participate in a discussion. The burden is on recipients to scroll down and make sure other board members were not among the recipient list before using a "reply all" function.

Even after the censure, Russo has continued his email blasts.  One recent email questioned use of the herbicide glyphosate, which the state just declared a carcinogen, at Wright’s Field which is maintained by the Backcountry Land Trust also chaired by Barnett.  “Will AUSD cease all student trips, cross country practices, tec. On Wright’s?  Will AEF stop having bands and runners on Wright’s? Will the County look into the use of Roundup on Wright’s and the danger? Will the media report on this?” Russo asked in his email.  Another stated, “BCLT is using a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer then encourages people to be exposed to it.”

That email string drew a response from a member of the ACPG, Jennifer Martinez, who fired back to Russo’s concern stating, “Remember when tomatoes were linked to cancer or hey how about eggs? The more this continues the more we open up our beloved pets and family members to things like Lyme disease, bubonic plague etc.”

Martinez copied acpg-members@googlegroups.com as well as media outlets in her reply to Russo, a potential Brown Act violation, just as Barnett foresaw, since land use issues involving Wright’s Field could fall under the ACPG jurisdiction.

Martinez has advised ECM that she does not believe herbicides fall under the ACPG jurisdiction and that she does not believe she violated the Brown Act. 

There is no current measure before the APCG regarding the herbicide use at Wright's Field, that we're aware of. But chemical use on public lands has, on occasion, been a topic addressed by planning groups. Boulevard Community Planning Group, for instance, has sent comments to the county opposing a wind farm, with concerns that included proposed use of herbicides on public land around wind turbines on federal, state, county and private lands.

Jim Easterling,  vice chair of the APCG,  asked if Wright's Field or herbicide issues could potentially come before the board, he replied, "Yes, conceivable," such as if the land were ever to change hands, for example.

As for the use of pesticides at Wright's Field that was the topic of those emails, Barnett offered a rebuttal to Russo’s allegations.  He told ECM that a generic herbicide containing glyphosate was used by a licensed professional habitat restoration contractor only once over a year ago. It was used on a “spot by spot, plant by plant basis to remove invasive mustard from a trial restoration project for the federally listed endangered San Diego Thornmint,” he says.  It was applied in an area remote from trails or other posted areas open to the public.

However, a woman claimed her dog became ill after eating plants on which the herbicide was used. Barnett was no toxicology report was done so it can’t be confirmed what caused the illness. However, “the dog would have had to have been off-leash, off-trail in an area not open to the public,” he said, adding that the same woman had been the subject of a citizens’ complaint with video showing her running her dog off-leash in the area.

An investigation was done by the county into the incident and its application was found in compliance with state law and county ordinance, Barnett says. 

However, he has asked the county for guidance in light of the new designation of glyphosate as a carcinogen.

Russo, in an email to ECM, insists that he knows the difference between "censor and censure" and suggested the censure was aimed at curbing his First Amendment free speech rights. 

He forwarded this link: http://www.westerncity.com/Western-City/June-2011/The-Brown-Act-and-the-Perils-of-Electronic-Communication/.  Russo cited the following passage:  "The Brown Act does not prohibit individual members of a legislative body from separately providing their own comments and opinions about a matter. A commissioner may write a newspaper editorial about an item the commission approved, and a city council member may give a speech or tweet about local projects under way in the city. Nor does the Brown Act prohibit “one-way” communications where, for example, a city manager transmits a communication to the entire council by e-mail.2 The “passive receipt” of a document by public officials is different from a commission's or city council’s collective action or discussion."

The problem from a legal standpoint comes in if members of a public board click "reply all" not realizing their reply goes to other members who were copied on an email with a long list of recipients, thus triggering a potential "serial meeting" on public matters that does violate the Brown Act. The same Western City source cited by Russo also warns of this potential, adding, "This type of meeting is particularly likely to occur by e-mail due to the ease of forwarding e-mails."

The ACPG has asked the County to dismiss Russo, who lost his re-election to the APCG, but later regained his seat by being appointed to the board by County Supervisors to fill a vacancy.  He also ran for the Alpine Union School Board unsuccessfully. In addition to the APCG, Russo was also recently appointed to serve on the Grossmont Union High School District’s Citizens Bond Oversight Committee.

County Counsel Thomas Montgomery affirmed tin a letter to ACPG Chair Travis Lyon that the ACPG does have the power to censure, or reprimand, a member found in violation of the Code of Ethics or Roberts Rules of Order, however “cannot bar or prevent a member from exercising First Amendment rights, or result in removal.”

 Voters, however, could opt to remove a member through a recall election, County Counsel noted. In addition, if a member were to be sued for defamatory, libelous or slanderous statements, the County would review the matter If the conduct were found to be outside the reasonable scope of a member’s duties and in violation of the Code of Ethics, it could be found that the member did not perform duties in good faith and with the prudence that a reasonable person should take, in which case the member would not be eligible for defense or indemnification by the County.

Correction:  An early version of this story indicated hitting "repy all" on a blind copy could prompt an illegal discussion under the Brown Act.  Reply all messages are received only by those who were open copied on the original message, not blind copied recipients.


Error message

Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.

Comments

Commentary on Alana Light's Perceptions

This comment is overdue, as it is the first time I have read Ms.Light's post. In the interest of East County Magazine's objective to report factual information, I want to correct some 'less than truthful' statements that Ms. Light made. The setting in which my encounter took place with Ms. Light and her partner (and their dogs) was Christmas morning. My mother had recently died, and I was just ending my walk with my puppy at Wright's Field. My puppy, though off leash, was not charging with aggression towards them, and was not aggressive towards either of her two dogs. In fact, I did ask her partner if he would hold my puppy's collar, and then, I explained, I would leash him and be on my way. There was no cause for Ms. Light's over reaction. It was the first time anyone had put a cell phone in my face to record me, which intimidated me, along with her explosive verbal attack. Her manner was so intimidating that I had second thoughts about walking to my car. The phrase she shouted at me when we were leaving will be forever stamped in my memory: " Merry f***ing Christmas !"(which didn't make it into her video). I never told her that I didn't care, I told her that I didn't care if she videoed me (not knowing that she intended to slander me by posting it as a fabricated You Tube). It was plain to see that she had an alliance with ACPG member George Barnett, who wanted to manipulate people's opinion of me right after my candidacy was announced. I didn't tell the truth about my name that day. I was worried for my safety resulting from the out of control behavior she was exhibiting towards me and my puppy.Her erratic behavior was not an appropriate response to my puppy being off leash, especially as there was no harm, or any semblance of harm. The three of us, and our dogs on an average encounter, gave no reason for her badgering behavior. Her partner, by contrast, remained calm. He may have been used to her outbursts. Later, after learning why she reacted so fearfully, I had empathy for her. I wrote her an apology. I found out that she had been thrown off her horse at Wright's Field and sustained a serious injury that was caused by her horse's fearful reaction to an off leash dog. When she saw my off leash puppy, it could have triggered her memory of that painful event. I made the connection between George Barnett and Ms. Light when I read their posts on Facebook, which demeaned my character, right around the time I announced my candidacy for the ACPG. There are always two sides to a story, and even though this happened three years ago, I am telling my mine. The separate issue of RoundUp use at Wright's Field was also not told correctly. I witnessed first hand the application of glyphosate at Wright's Field and talked to the worker doing the spraying. My puppy did become seriously ill with symptoms of poisoning, coincidentally near the time of the spraying. Mr. Barnett of Back Country Land Trust, knew the seriousness of my discovery , and wasted no time in gas lighting me, including working with Ms. Light to publicly criticize me. The only thing that they have to gloat about, is due to being shocked by Ms. Light's badgering, I gave a false name in order to protect myself from whom I thought might be a mentally unstable person who may wish to do me or my puppy harm. While she says that in twenty years no one she ever encountered at the field was as horrible as me and my puppy,is not exactly true as she must have encountered the owner of the off leash dog that frightened her horse in the previous incident. It is 2020 now and I have my name on the ballot. After that day at Wright's, one good thing came from it and that is that I more actively pursued getting a park in Alpine, making sure that it would house a very much needed dog park. With help from long term respected community members, the effort to get a park was successful.Ninety eight acres was purchased by the County designated for our first County Park. That's the rainbow in this story.It is the light shining through the dark clouds. And for that, I am grateful.

Video of APG Candidate & Why I Complained to the BCLT about Her!

I still get angry when I watch the video I took when encountering a loose dog that bounded at my leashed dogs while walking in Wright's Field. I was reading this article, trying to get a better idea about the relationship between APG Candidates Lou Russo and Mary Harris and saw a reference to me on paragraph 13! The irony is I had no idea when I had the confrontation with a random woman that her REAL name was MARY HARRIS. She told me it was Catherine Alexander and she didn't care whether or not her dog ran at mine - in fact - that was how she would catch her dog. 99% of people who turn their dogs loose are respectful and call their dogs when other leashed dogs are around. In over 20 years there have only been 2 dogs that have harassed my dogs. Mary Harris' dog was one of them and she just didn't care. When I asked her name, she lied. She was sarcastic and mocking. This video was originally posted almost three years ago - but it has taken on a new meaning now that I know she is running for the Alpine Planning Group. We don't need people in public office who mock others, don't care about laws and lie. Here is the Video of the confrontation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1W-cRu1swbg From what I gather from this article, Mary Harris and Lou Russo must have worked together to blame the BCLT for her dog getting sick. For the record I blame Mary Harris AKA Catherine Alexander for keeping me from walking in and enjoying Wright's Field.

OH WOW

Ok I want to point out a couple of things. First off the board did not vote unanimously to censure Mr. Russo. You would think that someone in journalism would at least get the PUBLIC record of that to see how the votes actually went. Second, I guess if you present someone with facts, that is considered ridiculing someone. The writer of this article knows nothing about me nor has she even spoken with me so she cannot attempt to interpret my "voice" in emails. I have been working with Round Up (glyphosate) for many, many, many years. My purpose was to explain what I have known for years, as well as point out some hypocrisy. Apparently, because the writer does not agree with my opinion she decided to blast me in an opinion piece or whatever she calls this (it certainly is not journalism as that would require fact checking). Which brings me to my third point, NO BROWN ACT VIOLATION WAS COMMITTED BY ME. Anyone with knowledge of the Brown Act clearly knows that you have to have something within the purview of the group to commit a Brown Act Violation. Round Up and opinions/knowledge of it are not within the purview of the ACPG!!!!! I knew exactly who were included in the emails and I was informing them as well as Mr. Russo of the dangers of restricting pesticides without proof. It is extremely important that we look into the future when making decisions today and the restrictions on pesticides will actually increase disease. I don't know of anyone's education within that email list, and opinions can be confused with fact. In no way can the ACPG or the County prevent me from my right to free speech. Since my knowledge of Round up does not fall within the purview of the ACPG then I have the right to comment on this particular subject and I did. I would advise those involved in this article to reconsider what has been said.

Jennifer -

Our initial source on the planning group was incorrect on the vote; I spoke with the vice chair who advised that Russo voted no. We've made that correction above.

However the vice chair also stated that Wright's Field and herbicide use there potentially COULD be within the purview of the planning group.  Moreover, other planning gorups have addressed herbicide usage on public and private lands within their jurisdiction.  So a discussion among multiple planners via email on those issues could potentially  become a Brown Act problem. 

We quoted you off your own email, on which we were copied as media. 

However we appreciate you offering your perspective on the herbicide in question based on your experience applying the chemical.