DA exonerates county supes, calls off investigation into secret meetings.

Retired Monterey County Superior Court Judge Kay Kingsley was sympathetic to claims that the Monterey County Board of Supervisors broke the law in numerous closed-door meetings, but last month, she ruled in the county's favor. 

Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo has followed suit. He announced Tuesday that he is suspending a months-long investigation into the supes—at the county's request—based on Kingsley's ruling. 

Flippo or his chief assistant, Terry Spitz, sat in on all eight hearings in the civil lawsuit against the county, filed in January by Save Our Peninsula Committee (SOP).

SOP alleged county officials had improperly been having policy discussions under the guise of personnel evaluations, a violation of the California Brown Act, which requires public officials to conduct most discussions in open public meetings.  

Spitz and Flippo took many pages of notes during those court proceedings, in which SOP unsuccessfully sought an order requiring the supervisors to record all closed-session performance evaluations in the future. 

In the end, Kingsley ordered county officials to turn over minutes of three closed-door performance evaluations, and she obtained hours of testimony from county lawyers (in a closed-door review) of those meetings. Ultimately, Kingsley opted not to request additional records, and ruled in favor of the county. 

Kingsley didn't release those minutes to SOP, or to the public. 

"To date, the law enforcement investigation of these allegations has likewise failed to produce any evidence of a violation of the Brown Act," according to a press release from the DA's office.

"The District Attorney’s office has no greater right of access to confidential records of a closed session than any member of the public. In short, should the District Attorney’s office file a civil case alleging a violation of the Brown Act and seek access to the same confidential records, the office would not fare any better than Save Our Peninsula in the current civil case."

SOP didn't back down from the case, and a trial is scheduled to begin on Aug. 25. Flippo may choose to reopen an investigation, should any new evidence arise in the trial, according to the press release. 

Flippo also offered a clarification in the county's defense of the high number of performance evaluations for five top county officials in 2013. 

"The law allows the Board [of Supervisors] to conduct as many performance evaluations of an executive during a year as it deems necessary," the press release states.

"However, the investigation has revealed that many of the scheduled 53 performance evaluations never took place or had to be continued two or more times because of other pressing matters on the closed-session agenda."