California’s Ralph M. Brown Act was front and center at the Jan. 16 Plumas County Board of Supervisors meeting. At issue was whether an exchange of emails between County Administrative Officer Debra Lucero and District Attorney David Hollister violated the state’s open meeting law.
Interim County Counsel Josh Brechtel, who introduced the topic under correspondence, said the series of exchanges represented a potential Brown Act violation because each of the four emails was copied to every member of the board of supervisors. Using a series of communications to discuss, deliberate or take action on any kind of business that might come before the board for a decision violates the law, he said.
“It’s a borderline case,” Brechtel told the supervisors. “I am ensuring that no discussion occurs between the board and any persons in a serial meeting that could result in liability for the county. The most appropriate way to address this is to release it to the public as encouraged by the Brown Act,” he said in his Jan. 11 email to Hollister.
The email exchange on Jan. 10 is an acrimonious back-and-forth over Hollister’s correspondence with the county human resources staff following criminal charges filed against HR Director Nancy Selvage. Hollister, who filed the charges Nov. 16, 2023, said he is concerned with protecting the integrity of the case against rumors that are “false, malicious and detrimentally impacting HR employees.”
Lucero, who is acting HR director while Selvage is on administrative leave, said her concern is protecting HR employees, who felt they “’had a target on their back’ from (the DA’s) office.”
“I want to make sure the board understands how wrong this is.”
David Hollister, Plumas County district attorney
Brechtel stopped the email discussion late on Jan. 10. Because Hollister and Lucero copied individual county supervisors in their emails, the thread had, “in effect, become a Brown Act violation,” Brechtel said. To “cure” the violation he reproduced the entire chain for the Jan. 16 board meeting.
Brechtel added that Hollister, “as an intermediary,” could himself “be part of a Brown Act violation, I suppose.”
Hollister responded with a five-minute dissertation on constitutional rights and the public’s ability to communicate with their representatives. Pacing in front of the supervisors, he said, “I want to make sure the board understands how wrong this is.”
The Brown Act is designed to provide the public with access to the discussions and decisions made by legislative bodies: city councils, boards and committees. “You are the legislative body,” he told the board. Only members of legislative bodies can violate the Brown Act — not their staff and not elected officials working side by side with supervisors, he said. “The Brown Act does not apply to individuals.”
The Plumas Sun asked Board Chairman Greg Hagwood if Hollister could violate the Brown Act. “Probably not,” he said. But the exchange of emails copied to each individual supervisor put the board in a position of potential violation. “It’s prudent to err on the side of caution,” Hagwood said.
“We’ve got to find common ground.”
Greg Hagwood, Plumas County Board of Supervisors chairman
Supervisor Jeff Engel said he read the email exchange “forward and backwards. And being a firm believer in the Brown Act and its benefits to society, I could not find any kind of a Brown Act violation,” he said.
Neither could Supervisor Kevin Goss, he told The Plumas Sun.
Despite Hagwood’s repeated pleas for “collaborative and courteous communication,” veiled tension between Hollister and Lucero flared in the emails and board room. Hollister said the county administrative officer demonstrated “a bias favoring the HR director at the expense of the citizens of Plumas County.”
Lucero cited Hollister’s “mode of communication — to accuse or leap to conclusions and spin it as truth in 10-second sound bites.” This is the language that “causes fear and concern among employees,” she said.
“Attacks, negativity and hostility” are not going to improve our ability to be successful as a county, said Hagwood. “We’ve got to find common ground.”
The supervisors took no action on the communication between Hollister and Lucero.