Did Sacramento break the law secretly discussing manager’s pay? Probe must be clear | Opinion

The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board
·3 min read

When the Sacramento City Council met in closed session earlier this month to evaluate the performance of City Manager Howard Chan, it was not supposed to be yet another conversation about his pay. Now that City Attorney Susana Alcala-Wood is investigating whether an illegal discussion took place, the city needs to come out of this as transparently as possible.

Only one member of the council requested this investigation, District Four’s Katie Valenzuela. It may be no coincidence that she is leaving the council at the end of the year and thus has little to fear. “I do want to publicly ask for an investigation into whether any rules were broken,” she said last Tuesday.

The Brown Act, California’s open meetings law that all cities must follow, is beyond clear on this subject. According to the League of California Cities, “the Brown Act specifically prohibits (closed session) discussion of employee compensation, except in context of labor negotiations. No closed session convened for a performance evaluation of a city manager may include a discussion between the manager and the council about compensation in closed session.”

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Whose job is it to make sure the Brown Act is being followed in a closed session? “A city attorney should not sit quietly while a council veers off-topic.” according to the cities association. “When present in closed session, whatever else the city attorney may be there for, the public should be able to count on the city attorney to speak up if the council discussion exceeds the scope of the permissible closed session.”

In response to Valenzuela’s request, Alaca-Wood said, “Given the confidential nature of closed session proceedings and ….the vague limitations that are set forth, it’s really unclear what meaningful remedy could be achieved.” A thorough investigation would be extremely meaningful. It would have to include the following.

  • If Alcala-Wood determines that a closed session on Chan’s performance included an unlawful discussion of the city manager’s pay, the city must officially declare that it violated the Brown Act.

  • Any portion of this closed session that illegally discussed the city manager’s pay should not be afforded any confidentiality or protection. In essence, what should have been a public session discussion wrongly happened in private. Alcala-Wood’s investigation should include as detailed a transcript of the discussion as possible.

  • The identity of who initiated this discussion of the city manager’s pay must be revealed.

  • How this violation occurred must be clarified. Was Alcala-Wood present and knowingly let the conversation happen? Was she unaware that the Brown Act prohibits a discussion of pay in a private performance evaluation? Was no attorney present at all?

Chan was the highest-paid city manager in California in 2022.

The Brown Act sets the floor, and not the ceiling, on meeting transparency. A city can develop its own rules, such as requiring Chan to provide questions in advance to the council for his performance evaluation so all parties better understand the boundaries of the discussion.

Open meeting rules for Sacramento “would be an excellent next step,” Valenzuela said. Alcala-Wood deserves credit for suggesting the idea herself as a possible discussion item for a future council meeting - in public.

If, as we suspect, Chan was shilling for a raise inappropriately in this closed session, that would be quite the performance. That would be two illegal meetings about his pay in only seven months. The first flub was in December when the city held a “special meeting” with barely 24 hours notice to discuss a 5% raise for Chan plus six weeks additional vacation. The approval was nullified because the Brown Act specifically prohibits special meetings for manager raises. Chan has been trying to get a raise ever since.

Earlier this month, as the city was putting the finishing touches on a grim budget that jacks up fees and ends free parking downtown and midtown on Sundays, was Chan out for himself yet again? A Brown Act violation would be another black eye for City Hall.