White Motions for a Closed Session Among the Council; Orozco seconds the Motion; Wysocki Kills the Motion
By: Libi Uremovic| Original Article at Patch.com
Beaumont City Council Meeting January 6, 2015: http://podcast.ci.beaumont.ca.us/CC_2015-01-06_agenda.htm
73:00 White: There are actually two documents that we’re supposed to consider approval. And the second one, the way I read it, it’s a lien on the Wastewater Enterprise Fund in case there are costs that are not covered. And that brings up a very serious issue as far as I’m concerned. And when you start talking about septic tank and failure and sewer pipes and all of that.
And then I learn on the Patch that we have been served with a letter from an Agency that’s threatening to sue us to replace 35%, even more, of all the sewer pipes in the City. And we never received, my understanding is that it was mailed to the City Manager, Mr. Moorjani, and also the City Council. I didn’t received anything on that and it was mailed on December 12th and it had a 20 day time period for the City to make a decision to respond, then a 60 day period from the time the letter is originally submitted for them to follow up with a lawsuit. It’s Cal River Watch. Did you not receive that document?
74:20 Wysocki: This letter was received from California River Watch. We received it on December 18th. Under the statue; they can’t do anything for 60 days. In the letter they ask us to respond within 20 days. We are in the process, with the holidays and everything, we are in the process of investigating the allegations.
But the allegations are so incredibly generic and vague and ambiguous and many of them have no application to our watershed, application to the Salton Sea watershed, which suggest to me that this is just a boilerplate letter sent out by this organization. And without getting into too much debt here; I did circulate it with the California Association of Sanitation Agencies, which are all the Agencies that choose to be members that have wastewater treatment facilities. And this organization does this routinely with a lot of wastewater agencies whether or not there’s anything going on with the wastewater agency.
What I had planned to do is; after the investigation and within the 60 day statutory period, is come back on the 20th with a Closed Session to talk about this in depth.
White: Here’s the problem I have. I understand that it may be boilerplate, it looks like it. I also understand that, if you go on their website, there are many different phases; 30 or 40 that they consider resolved, 30 or 40 that are in the stage that we’re in. I also remember that the City of San Bernardino was sued by the 3rd party for NPDES and it resulted in criminal charges and it resulted in City Council Members’ homes being raided eventually.
Because this raises the level not just to the State, not just to the local Water Board, but it raises to the level of the EPA and the Federal Government. My concern is that there were copies mailed to Mr. Kapanicas, Mr. Moorjani, and to us. I did not get it. Now I don’t understand where it’s the authority of the City Manager or the City Attorney to make a decision on a 20 day time limit or a 60 day time limit without bringing it to Council for us to be at least knowledgable.
For us to read and learn about this on the Patch and have people come to me and say ‘What’s going on here?’ And I say ‘I don’t know’. But I see very clearly in here that it says it was sent to the City Council as well as everyone else I’ve mentioned. Are you comfortable, as the City Attorney, with this being withheld from us and not presented to us for our consideration and our conversation.
77:30 Wysocki: Nothing’s been withheld. Like I said before, I planned on bringing this to the Council at Closed Session on the 20th of January after I’ve conducted an investigation whether there’s any merit to any of these generic, general, and vague allegations. As for the mail; I can’t answer that question.
White: Mayor Knight, when you received the document, what did you do with it?
Knight: I went and asked our City Manager.. Actually I got the document ..
White: When did you get the document?
Knight: I don’t know. I just picked it up. I wasn’t here over the holidays.
White: You picked it up where?
Knight: In my mailbox.
White: It wasn’t in my mailbox.
Knight: I got it. I don’t have anything to do with the mail.
White: Here’s where I’m coming from; we have a City that’s facing a $43 Million with tens of millions of dollars in interest. Whether you think this is boilerplate, whether you think it’s got validity to it; the resulting lawsuit is tens of millions of dollars. And we’re asking to put $69 Million towards a new desalination plant, we’re being told that we can use the wastewater plant as a lien for this other project. Regardless; this is something that should come to Council immediately and we should be giving consideration.
What I’d like to do right now is; I would like to move for a Closed Session for the five of us, just to go back and discuss this among the five of us without Mr. Kapanias and without Mr. Wysocki. That’s my motion right now.
Orozco: I second that motion.
Wysocki: Mayor and Council; the motion’s unnecessary, there’s already a Closed Session Agenda listed for this Item.
White: It’s not listed.
Wysocki: It doesn’t have to be. It says litigation pending. You don’t have to name the Case, you just name anticipated litigation.
White: Mr. Wysocki, you consider it unnecessary. I have a motion on the floor. I would like the motion voted on.
Wysocki: There’s no Agenda Item for this motion.
White: I can make an emergency motion item for an Executive Session of Closed Session. It comes within my rights. I have a motion, I have a second.
Wysocki: It’s not within your rights. It’s inappropriate. It’s not Agendized. You’re making this motion in connection with the State Water Resource Control Board, Clean Water State Revolving Fund Reimbursement and Pledged Revenues Resolution. This has got nothing to do with that.
White: Why is it that you don’t want us to ..
Wysocki: I’m telling you.
White: ..talk amongst ourselves about it?
Wysocki: I’m telling you, that said; you can still have your closed session tonight because there is anticipated litigation.
White: Here’s my problem..
80:00 Knight: Mr. White. Mr. White, now stop it! Listen to our City Attorney.
White: I’m still discussing..
Knight: Stop! Stop! Stop! No! Wait!
White: I’m not finished.
Knight: Wait just a minute.
White: Okay, but I’m not finished.
Knight: Wait. Wait. I will let you finish. I am not an attorney. Neither are any of us on this Council. I want the counsel of our Attorney. We hire our Counsel. We depend on them. i want to know what they have to say. If you want to go into Closed Session, I don’t have an issue with that, but it’s to the point, it’s like, I am not wiling to make a decision without our Attorney.
80:50 White: Here’s the problem; no one has asked us to make a decision.
Knight: We ..
White: Now wait a second Mayor Knight. You slammed the gavel down on me and you told me to ‘stop it’. I’m not done. Here’s my issue; two issues. Number one: We are voting on a Mayoral leader tonight. Number two: You, as Mayor, were aware of this document. I was not..
Wysocki: This is way off the Agenda.
Knight: Okay..
Wysocki: Can you have your Closed Session tonight, Motion is Out of Order. Right now we’re on the Agenda item for State Water Resource Control Board, Clean Water State Revolving Fund Reimbursement and Pledged Revenues and Fund Resolution.
Knight: Okay, and we need to move this Item forward. We’re going to move it forward. We will bring it back.
White: If someone raids my home I’m going to be very upset.
Knight: Mr. White. We will bring it back. We’re not going to not let you have your time, but we need to move forward on this and we need to go for it.
White: Why can’t we just deny the motion?
Deming: I have a speaker on this Item as well.
Fox: I’m with Lloyd as far as talking in Closed Session, but It is off this Item particular Item we’re talking about. We’re talking about servicing these folks on these mobile home parks. Let’s stay on focus, but I would have to agree with Council; I didn’t get the letter. This is the first time I saw it and just briefly read through it. I just read through it briefly. So it’s something we need to talk about, but I think we need to set up a special Closed Session. It doesn’t have to happen tonight, it can be; we can do another Thursday Afternoon or Thursday Evening.
Knight: Would you like to move it to a date and time? We’re fine. We can do a whole workshop on it.
White: No, let’s take it up tonight. There is a time frame on this and we are now 25 days into the 60 days that we have to make a decision.
Knight: We need to stay on the Agenda Item, so we need to move this forward NOW!
83:00 Deming: I have a Speaker on this Item.