2019-01-23 Meeting Minutes (EMC)

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He consulted the Office of Information Practices and reviewed some of the legal opinions. The official business of the EMC has Sunshine Law implications in terms of what can be discussed outside of an official meeting, but the question is what really constitutes commission business. The OIP says references to official business are matters over which a board has supervision, control, jurisdiction, or advisory power. It also says official business is matters that are before the board or likely reasonably expected to come before the board. The commissioners are not constrained from discussing matters that are not on their agendas or likely to be. (b) The importance of the agenda. Chair Bennett said he would like agenda items to be clear on whether they are for discussion and action or just for information. (c) The meeting schedule. Chair Bennett said it has been suggested that they reduce their meetings to six per year. He is personally frustrated that they only meet once a month, as it limits their productivity. Commissioner Pequeño proposed keeping the monthly schedule and lengthening the ending time to 11:30 a.m. or 12:00 p.m. Chair Bennett said this matter will be on the February agenda, so commissioners can think about it and make suggestions then. (2) Environmental reports to the Office of Environmental Quality Control. Chair Bennett said the OEQC publishes EISs and EAs to give the public knowledge and an opportunity to respond. Sometimes it is appropriate for the EMC to respond to these. However, he was distressed at a previous meeting to be told by Corporation Counsel that they could not talk about an EA unless they did so in executive session. Therefore, he had asked the commissioners if any of them wanted to go into executive session to discuss the EA, and no one said they wanted to. He has since learned that the OIP and Sunshine Law prohibit discussing EAs and EISs in executive session. It has to be done in public. Ms. Wong said that may be correct in general, though she has not seen the opinion Chair Bennett was referring to. However, the incident the Chair was referring to needed to be handled differently because there was pending litigation against the county regarding the EA/EIS, or lack of one. Chair Bennett said he understands the lawsuit, but the EA stands alone as a public document that the EMC should have discussed, and yet they were told they could not. He would like to see a legal opinion from OIP about that. Vice Chair Olson said Chair Bennett could contact the OIP to request that opinion.