RIP - The Fried-Dusick Agua Dulce Town Council is dead! |
July 25, 2005. Their arrogance and their demand to operate in secret, while still claiming to represent the community, failed to convince a Superior Court judge. that they were not subject to the Brown Act. Now four of the seven members have resigned, canceling all meetings because the 3 remaining members of the Council can never be a quorum.
Andy Fried without council started negotiating in secret with the Airport and Antonovich's office to "cut a deal" for the community. We have taken the position for years that you can't operate in secret while claiming to represent the public. In fact, the charter passed by the voters of Agua Dulce requires the meetings to be publicized and a public comment period, which are the fundamental requirements of the Brown Act. It further requires that all of their records must be in writing and available to the public, which is the primary requirement of the Public Records Act.
This charter cannot be changed by the Town Council and requires a 2/3 vote by the community in a regularly scheduled election to change its language.
This paper has made demands over the last few years to publish their agendas, minutes, and documents. Andy Fried and his predecessors have refused to provide these documents and given smatterings exclusively to the Country Journal.
Andy's bad decision to spend tens of thousands of dollars to keep their documents secret and their meetings un-recorded shows his abundant lack of interest in being public and representing the community.
The pro-airport people which I oppose, filed this action to make the Council public and I heartily agree with it. One must never blame an idea because of its source. And this is why I fully support the pro-airport people in attacking the privacy and non-representative actions of the ADTC.
In fact, the first thing that Andy Fried did after the judge decreed that they must follow the Brown Act by operating in public and placing all actions on the agenda was to issue a press release through his attorney describing the unilateral actions he was having the Council take without any public action or vote. In other words, his first action was to violate the Brown Act.
Lets hope some individuals in the community will, under the publicly approved charter, restart the Town Council following as precisely as possible the Brown Act, the Public Records Act, and the Election Code.
The days of the secret Agua Dulce own Council have ended. RIP 7/9/05.