If only water projects or hospital mergers moved as fast as performance reviews of the officials assigned to run them, things might get done faster.
Ever since revelations about the county's high number of performance evaluations (closed-door meetings to review employee progress toward goals) came to light after concerned citizens counted them—58 last year, to be exact—and got ahold of a leaked document implying policy discussions might be underway during performance evaluations, there's been lots of scrutiny over what actually happens during performance evaluations.
Yesterday, County Counsel Charles McKee asked District Attorney Dean Flippo to investigate whether the performance evaluations under fire adhere to California public meetings laws, known as the Brown Act.
"In response to these allegations, I believe that an independent review and legal opinion of these issues by the District Attorney is appropriate," McKee said in a statement.
Besides the requested criminal investigation, the matter is also going to play out in civil court. Activist group Save Our Peninsula Committee filed a lawsuit Monday in Monterey County Superior Court asking the county hand over records pertaining to the performance reviews. The group had requested such records through a California Public Records Act request (the Weekly has a pending PRA request on the same subject).
Unless documents from the performance evaluations are made public, "Plaintiff and the public will continue to suffer irreparable injury resulting from the improper conduct of the people's business in closed session," according to the lawsuit, filed by attorney Richard Rosenthal of Carmel Valley.
In a PRA request, Rosenthal had sought the agenda and minutes of closed session performance evaluations of Monterey County Water Resources Agency General Manager David Chardavoyne.
A leaked agenda from a Nov. 5 closed session performance evaluation indicates that Chardavoyne might have been presenting on matters of policy pertaining to Salinas River water rights, which the county won the right to keep on certain conditions.
The state had threatened to revoke the water right, originally granted under Permit 11043, because it had gone unused for decades; a new MCWRA committee is at work on developing plans for how to divert the water.
Bullet points on Chardavoyne's presentation show "Assessment of all Permit 11043 Projects" including engineering, cost estimates, and environmental considerations; "discussion of potential sources of revenue"; "Risks associated with failure to meet Permit 11043"; and other issues related to the MCWRA's efforts to meet the conditions of the permit.
In a separate PRA, Rosenthal sought records pertaining to reviews of the other county staffers who report directly to the Board of Supervisors.
According to Rosenthal's count, there were 16 such evaluations of McKee; eight of County Administrator Lew Bauman; 15 of Natividad Medical Center CEO Harry Weis; seven of Equal Opportunity Officer Irma Rodriguez-Bough; and six of Chardavoyne.
"As public servants, we are open to legitimate criticism of the manner in which we execute our obligations because we work under the public trust and public microscope,"McKee said in a written statement.