Three council members’ Balboa Park ploy an assault on Brown Act – San Diego Union-Tribune

On Jan. 5, the city of San Diego began charging residents and nonresidents to park at Balboa Park. To say that the rollout went badly is a gross understatement; the only way it could have been worse is if the city made everyone parallel park before paying.

There was extensive news coverage both before and after the paid parking was enacted showing widespread opposition to the parking fees for residents and nonresidents alike.

On Jan. 27, three City Council members who had voted in support of paid parking in Balboa Park held a press conference inside City Hall.

At that press conference, Council President Joe La Cava, Council President Pro Tem Kent Lee and Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera jointly announced their proposal to suspend paid parking fees for residents, but keep the parking fees for nonresidents. La Cava said he was docketing their proposal for the council meeting that will be held on Monday, Feb. 9. There was no mention of a ballot measure as part of their proposal.

On Jan. 28, the Rules Committee had a meeting. La Cava, Lee and Elo-Rivera are three of the five members who serve on the Rules Committee; La Cava is the chair and Lee is the vice chair.

Item 2 on the Rules Committee’s agenda was a ballot measure proposed by Shane Harris for free public parking at Balboa Park on Sundays for residents and nonresidents. It was the second time his ballot proposal was at the Rules Committee; the first was back in November, but the committee lost a quorum so the item was trailed to a future meeting.

The Balboa Park ballot proposal was not heard in the order in which it was originally shown on the agenda and was instead moved behind Item 4. Harris and those wishing to speak on it had to wait over five hours to provide their testimony.

When the item was finally heard, and public testimony concluded, Councilmember Raul Campillo made a motion to support Harris’ ballot proposal but amended it to make parking free for both nonresidents and residents not just on Sundays but every day and to forward the ballot measure to the City Council. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Vivian Moreno. La Cava and Lee voted no so the motion failed.

And therein lies the problem.

When elected officials make decisions, it is supposed to be done at a public meeting so the public can participate. The open government laws collectively known as the Brown Act require that the City Council conduct the public’s business in public; it does not allow a majority of the members of a legislative body to take action outside of a properly noticed public hearing.

The proposal by the three council members at the press conference was a collective concurrence by a majority of the Rules Committee members in advance of a public hearing. There was no public notice for the press conference and the public got shut out of the decision-making process.

La Cava, Lee and Elo-Rivera knew that paid parking at Balboa Park was on the Rules Committee agenda the very next day, but that did not stop them from holding a press conference to announce their own proposal before the meeting.

So it was no surprise that the ballot measure proposal failed at the Rules Committee meeting. La Cava, Lee and Elo-Rivera had already made up their minds to support a different proposal that would include charging nonresidents to park at Balboa Park and would not include a ballot measure.

It seems pretty clear that the outcome of the vote on Harris’ ballot proposal was a done deal before the public ever had an opportunity to speak at the Rules Committee meeting.

This is wrong, disrespectful and a violation of our open government laws. There is a legal remedy available to ensure compliance with the Brown Act; there is also a more immediate public participation remedy that includes attending the City Council meeting on Monday and speaking in support of a ballot measure that provides free parking every day at Balboa Park for both residents and nonresidents.

Don’t be fooled into believing that a temporary suspension of the resident parking fees is a good solution. Unless there is a permanent solution, we all know it’s only a matter of time before the city’s “free resident” parking becomes the city’s “fee per resident” parking.

Frye is a former San Diego City Council member and former president of Californians Aware (CalAware), a nonprofit organization devoted to defending open government. She lives in Clairemont.