The Tomales Village Community Services District has limited how board members and an administrator can communicate with the press, amid months of tension between some members and administrator Karl Drexel and after Mr. Drexel forwarded an argument over the state’s public records law to the Light.
The changes have been codified in two new policies at a time when Mr. Drexel, who has worked at the district for 15 years, will likely be replaced within a few months when his contract position is split into two part-time jobs.
The dispute last month that set off the new policies concerned audio recordings the district makes of its regular public meetings. For some months, the board secretary uploaded recordings of the meetings to SoundCloud; from there, they could be streamed or downloaded. The secretary, Sue Sims, regularly notified board directors and some community members in friendly emails that the files had been posted online. But the download option was eliminated in August after the board met with Lorenzo Cuesta, a professional board trainer.
Mr. Drexel, absent from an early August meeting, argued with Ms. Sims over email about how she would provide him a recording of the meeting. He also alleged that she had violated the Brown Act by removing the download option without a board vote.
At the next board meeting, on Aug. 27, directors passed two new policies. The first stipulated that all communications to the media “which are, or could be, perceived as statements by the District on matters of District business, shall be reviewed in advance by the President of the Board of Directors.” The administrator shouldn’t speak for the board “without bringing it to the full board first. If you’re gonna talk to the media, bring it to us first,” said board president Bill Bonini. The new policy, he went on, was not meant to apply if an administrator is offering a personal opinion about the district.
But Ms. Sims appears to be over-interpreting the new policy, declining to send a copy of it before getting Mr. Bonini’s approval—and that after multiple unanswered emails—and Mr. Drexel does not believe he can say anything at all to the media without board approval.
General managers of four local districts that responded to a Light query are not required to obtain board approval for their comments. (Although they tend to undertake the same duties as the Tomales service district administrator, they are technically employees, while Mr. Drexel is a contractor.)
The second new policy stipulates that audio recordings must be reviewed inside the district office and only after the secretary and administrator have listened to them to check the minutes. (The streaming files have all been removed from SoundCloud, although Mr. Drexel argued in a recent letter with the board that any recordings that predate the new policy must be reposted online. The president said the office is being set up this week but was unsure if the board would repost the files.)
The policy also explicitly states that audio recordings are not public records, though they can be listened to in the office for up to 30 days after the meeting, as legally required of districts that make recordings. Service districts aren’t required to record meetings; some, like the Inverness Public Utility District, simply take meeting notes, while others, like North Marin Water District, make audio recordings. (The water district keeps its on file up to three years and conveys them electronically upon request.) The Richardson Bay Sanitary District records its meetings on cassettes, which must be listened to in the district’s office.
Mr. Cuesta has advised the board that audio recordings are not public records. But Peter Scheer, the executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates and litigates for media organizations, told the Light that an audio recording of a public meeting does constitute a public record, though it can legally be destroyed after a 30-day window. The state’s public records act says anything created by a district that is “writing” is a public record, and “writings,” by definition, include “sounds.” Mr. Bonini said that a lawyer for the district is currently reviewing the policies.
He also said the board is open to amending the policies. “We need help. We really do need help in learning how to run stuff,” Mr. Bonini said.