Critics: State laws broken

The Costa Mesa City Council’s move to form an Orange County Fairgrounds subcommittee during Tuesday’s closed session might have violated the state’s open meeting laws, a critic with knowledge of California meetings laws said.

“They should have created the subcommittee in open session because that decision wouldn’t reveal the price and terms of the transaction,” said First Amendment Coalition Executive Director Peter Scheer, an expert on the state’s open-meeting laws. “It’s related to the price and terms, but it doesn’t come within the scope of real estate transactions, which only allows closed sessions to discuss price and terms.

“If they were going to decide whether or not to have a subcommittee, what it would do, what its power should be, that should’ve been decided and discussed in open session,” Scheer said.

The two-person subcommittee, made up of council members Katrina Foley and Gary Monahan, was created to delve into details of the city’s negotiations with the state to buy the fairgrounds, and report back to the rest of the council, said Mayor Allan Mansoor.

But a former councilwoman-turned activist, who has opposed the state’s sale of the fairgrounds, is questioning the transparency of holding that meeting behind closed doors.

“That was not on the agenda,” said former Mayor Sandy Genis, who’s led efforts to preserve the fairgrounds. “So, what else did they talk about?”

The public portion of that evening’s agenda lists a closed session regarding “real property negotiations for 88 Fair Drive,” but it does not refer to the formation of a sub-committee.

Since the saga of the proposed sale began last year, the council has been meeting in closed session to discuss the price and terms of offers for the 150-acre property. The city continues to meet in closed session now that it is dealing exclusively with the state in a bid to buy the fairgrounds.

By law, the council cannot discuss anything other than what has been noticed on the agenda — in Costa Mesa’s case, the price and terms of payment.

Mansoor said he could not reveal closed session discussions to the public.

“There are a lot of unknowns at this time, and there is a lot of sensitive information that we have to be careful with,” he said. “But at the same time, when things are leaked out, that undermines the process.”

For months, the Orange County Fair Board has been criticized by the public for lack of transparency. Genis has been among the fair board’s fiercest critics. Now, she seems to be raising questions about whether the City Council, which had said that it was working on behalf of the city’s residents to keep the fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, might be doing the same thing.

“I’ve been spending a lot of time on this because I wanted to make sure that the fairgrounds would be governed with full openness and accountability to the public, and these latest events with the city give me great pause,” Genis said.