It appears the Truth or Consequences City Commission violated the state’s Open Meetings Act by taking action to narrow the field of candidates for city manager during its closed executive session on Monday, March 15.
City Clerk Angela Torres confirmed yesterday, March 16, that she was instructed by the city commission to have the minutes reflect no action was taken in open session following the closed session.
“We just do what we are told by the city commission,” Acting City Manager Traci Alvarez also stated yesterday . “They told us no action was taken.”
Yesterday Torres said she was instructed by an unnamed party to send the Sun the list of applicants who were vying for the city manager’s position. Without this document, the Sun and the public would not have known the city commission took action in the people’s name in secret. Thirty-nine candidates applied, according to the supplied document, which is attached below.
The Sierra County Sentinel, owned and edited by City Commissioner Frances Luna, published an article revealing closed-session information about an hour after the session ended on Monday. The article’s headline stated the city commission narrowed the field of candidates, but the body of the article gave no specifics. The article did not state that the persons on the narrowed list were final-round candidates, making it appear that only five candidates had applied for the city manager position.
Narrowing the field of candidates is an action that should have been taken in an open session, as required by the state’s Open Meetings Act.
City Commissioner Randall Aragon confirmed yesterday that the city commission narrowed the field to five candidates during the closed session. “But why couldn’t we do that?” Aragon asked. “It was a personnel matter.” Aragon was unaware the Open Meetings Act allows only discussion during a closed session, but requires action to be taken in an open session. Aragon has been a city commissioner since April 2020. “I’m new at this,” he said.
Mayor Sandra Whitehead did not return the Sun’s call requesting comment.
Whitehead has been a city commissioner for about 10 years. City Commissioner Frances Luna was a county commissioner for eight years before being appointed by her fellow commissioners as a T or C commissioner five months ago. Their sanctioning of taking action during Monday’s closed session raises the question of whether the commission has previously taken other government actions in secret. Closed-session meeting minutes are not public documents.
Not good, when our city commission violates a state law. The Open Neetings Act exists just so these type of closed-door meetings do not take place. Sure, the commissioners can meet in a closed-door session to discuss items but they are not supposed to take any action unless it is in an open meeting environment. From the article in the Sentinel, it appeared we only had five candidates for city manager when in fact we had over 40 applicants, and the city commission took action in narrowing down the field to five candidates in a closed-door meeting, and no one in the meeting knew the law? Where was the city attorney during the closed-door meeting? Since the action taken violates the Open Meetings Act, do the candidates that were cut have any legal options? Are the city commissioners setting T or C up for a legal challenge? Come on, commissioners, you need to know the law that governs your meetings.