Transparent government? Narratives clash after DA found Barstow leaders likely broke laws
San Bernardino County’s head political-crime prosecutor penned a letter half a year ago to explain a conclusion his investigators had reached: Most of Barstow’s elected lawmakers likely broke laws in the process of ousting Councilwoman Barbara Rose from her former seat as the city’s mayor pro tem.
Deputy District Attorney Phil Stemler wrote in May 28 letter to the Pasadena office of Barstow City Attorney Matthew Summers that through a series of one-on-one meetings in which Mayor Paul Courtney functioned as their “intermediary,” a majority of the City Council’s members illegally agreed “to orchestrate what the Mayor referred to as ‘our plan" and boot Rose from her former seat.
A second legal violation was likely committed when the city released a public meeting agenda “seemingly tailormade to hide its purpose and prevent the public from participating” in removing and replacing its mayor pro team, Stemler said.
Beyond the letter, Stemler said his office would “take no further action at this time” based on an attempt the city made to correct its actions and on a promise that Summers would host a training session to teach Barstow’s five City Council members — three of whom won first terms in 2020 — the laws they must follow “in the conduct of the people’s business” under California’s Ralph M. Brown Act.
“We appreciate your agreement to counsel and train the Mayor and City Council on their obligations under the Brown Act so that they can best serve their constituents,” Stemler wrote in a May 28 follow-up letter.
More than six months after the May 7 phone call, no such training has occurred. But in response to a recent order by the City Council and a more recent follow-up call from the deputy district attorney, Summers is now expected to fulfill his training promise.
Datobarstow052821 From Da by West Hub on Scribd
Conflicting narratives from city officials raise questions as to why it has taken so long to conduct the Brown Act training.
Summers privately argued, according to Rose, that he was told to delay the training against his own wishes by the mayor and Jim Hart, Barstow's recently departed interim city manager. However, both Courtney and Hart strongly deny that recollection and say an order of this kind would not be in their power.
Summers declined to comment for this article, and did not confirm, deny or clarify his explanation. The counter-parties spoke candidly; “I think that the city attorney may be trying to cover his own tail,” Hart told the Daily Press.
Summers also told city officials that he sent a response letter to Stemler in June on the city's behalf. But according to the District Attorney’s Office, neither Stemler nor anyone else at the agency ever received such a letter. What may be no more than a mailbag mix-up only adds to a series of unresolved questions.
‘Deliberately vague’
Councilwoman Barbara Rose, one of Barstow’s post-2020 election newcomers, brought up Stemler’s letter during a City Council meeting last month, Oct. 18.
Rose motioned for the city to require Summers to hold the training within one month of that night. Councilwoman Marilyn Dyer-Kruse, another newcomer, seconded the motion.
Summers emailed Stemler and the Daily Press on Oct. 28 stating that a date for the Brown Act training has been set: Nov. 15 at 6 p.m. in City Hall.
The Public Integrity Unit helmed by Stemler is charged with “investigating and prosecuting elected and appointed public officials” who break the law from “their position of public trust,” its website states.
Summers to Stem Ler 1028 by West Hub on Scribd
Stemler's talks with Summers this past May focused an effort supposedly led by Courtney, Barstow’s third post-2020 newcomer, to end Rose's stint as mayor pro tem a few months after it began.
The effort succeeded. Then-Councilman James Noble now holds the mayor pro tem role.
The mayor pro tem is not elected on a city ballot. They are appointed and confirmed by a majority City Council vote, and a sitting council member always holds the seat. The title comes from the Latin term “pro tempore,” which translates to “for the time being,” and is basically ceremonial in normal times with the same powers as any other council member in normal times.
If the sitting mayor is temporarily absent or vacates their seat, the mayor pro leads City Council meetings, influencing meeting agendas, being the city’s default representative, and more.
Rose now publicly compliments Noble’s job in her old role. But conflicts have flared for months between her and the mayor — who were relatively allied in 2020, one of the reasons Courtney initially appointed Rose to be his mayor pro tem — and even prompted denouncement in a recent anonymous letter from city staff, the Daily Press reported.
One code in the Brown Act requires cities to publicly release an agenda at least 72 hours before all regular meetings and include “a brief general description” of each item to be addressed.
In the lead-up to the City Council’s May 3 meeting, Stemler said the agenda released by Barstow was “deliberately vague.” He even suggested in the letter that Courtney may have “criminally” violated the Brown Act by “acting with the specific intent to deprive the public of information.”
His issue was an item described only as “City Council Organization” in that agenda with a recommended action: “City Council discusses the City Council organization and takes any action necessary.”
These descriptors, as it turned out, were meant to inform people a discussion and vote would be happening to remove Rose as mayor pro tem and to replace her with Noble.
“We understand from our discussion with you that the Mayor added this item to the agenda and that you reviewed the agenda prior to its posting,” Stemler wrote to Summers.
Stemler said these “descriptions must give the public a fair chance to participate by providing more than just ‘mere clues’ from which the public must guess or surmise.”
Barstow’s May 3 agenda, he continued, offered the public “no clue” that the mayor pro tem seat would be discussed, despite the City Council having “devoted at least a quarter of its meeting time to discussing” the subject when the meeting occurred.
“It is difficult to conceive how ‘any action’ could have provided adequate notice,” Stemler wrote, adding that even City Council members expressed surprise to learn what it referred to when it came up in the meeting.
Rose resigned from her mayor pro tem post early in the discussion that night, saying she would continue to push back on proposals as a council member to ensure votes are critically considered.
Rose says prior to the meeting that night, she called Hart — the former interim city manager, who Willie Hopkins recently took over as Barstow’s full-time hire – to ask him what the agenda item meant. Hart says that he also did not know, and that Courtney told him to add the item to the agenda as it was written with no further context.
‘Clean my laundry’
Stemler alleged a second violation: A majority of the City Council participated “in a series of one-to-one nonpublic conversations for the purpose of collectively deciding” on the mayor pro tem changes prior the May 3 meeting.
Courtney held with private talks with Dyer-Kruse, Noble and Councilman Tim Silva prior to the May 3 meeting that Stemler said “would constitute a serial meeting in violation of the Brown Act” with the mayor connecting the group as its “intermediary.”
Silva and Dyer-Kruse confirmed that the conversations occurred at the May 3 meeting but said they did not realize Courtney was speaking to other council members. Silva said he also did not know the May 3 agenda item had anything to do with the mayor pro tem gig.
“I’m going to clean my laundry,” Silva said to Courtney during the May 3 meeting, “and admit to the public that you did come to my office, you did speak to me,” and after talking over the plan, “then you told me this was an agendized item.”
“I’ve told you before I will not discuss agendized items,” Silva continued. “I’ve been, I believe, put into a possible Brown Act violation by you.”
Dyer-Kruse said she was surprised to be “finding out that there were other people that were spoke(n) to.” She said Courtney “asked my opinion and had some concerns, but told me that I was the only person he was going to ask and talk to. So I just want to make that perfectly clear.”
Stemler said in the letter that “although (Dyer-Kruse and Silva) each said that the Mayor told them he was not speaking to other councilmembers, the Mayor’s statements contradict them.”
Courtney, in response to Silva, said at the meeting: “If you read the agendized item, it says it very, very, very generically what our plan was, what the plan was, because I spoke to you a month ago.”
Stemler counted this as an admission to the first alleged violation. He cited another quote from the meeting as an admission to the second violation.
“Councilman Noble’s name came up, and you indicated I should talk to the guys first,” Courtney said to Dyer-Kruse at the May 3 meeting, “and if the guys weren’t willing to fill in for Mayor Pro Tem, you would then fill in.”
Summers, the city attorney, jumped in soon after this point in the meeting. “Mr. Mayor, at this time, I might recommend that we refrain from further commentary as to who met with who, when and how.”
“The record is unclear as to what the facts exactly were,” Summers continued, “and it may not be helpful for the city for the record to clarify further at this time. I would recommend looking to the future.”
From there, the City Council tabled its vote to make Noble the new mayor pro tem. It confirmed him 4-1 at the next meeting, on May 17, with a dissenting vote from Rose.
Stemler’s letter noted that the mayor pro tem vote “was properly noticed for public consideration” in the May 17 meeting's agenda, representing an attempt by the city to correct its prior actions.
Yet, he did not mince words in describing how his office believed it was letting Barstow off the hook.
“Even if these actions do not amount (to) a violation of the Brown Act, they fly in the face of its express purpose,” Stemler wrote in the letter to Summers.
‘Trying to cover his own tail’
Rose told the Daily Press that immediately after the Oct. 18 meeting, Summers told her “the timing has gone far longer than he wanted” to hold a Brown Act training session.
She says Summers claimed he was “taking the directive of the former interim City Manager (Hart) and our mayor to put it off as long as he could.”
Summers said in an email that “I cannot comment on my communications with any officials of my client, the City of Barstow,” in response to multiple requests for comment on this point and other conflicting narratives.
Hart and Courtney expressed bafflement at the allegation.
“That’s just totally not true, and I think that the city attorney may be trying to cover his own tail,” Hart said, adding that scheduling legal training is “purely a city attorney responsibility.”
“Just thinking logically,” Hart said, “if the city attorney tells the DA, ‘I’ll make sure that there’s training that’s happening,’ do you think that he’s going to take direction from me to not do it? His response to Councilmember Rose makes no sense.”
Courtney said “there is no truth to that. None. Any training recommendations that come my way or our way, it’s done.”
The mayor also said the discussion by Rose last meeting was the first time he had heard anything about Stemler’s letter or potential Brown Act violations being considered over the mayor pro tem replacement.
“I wasn’t even sure what she was talking about, to be honest with you,” Courtney said. “But if anybody’s willing to give us additional training or whatever, we’re into getting additional training.”
Rose also said at the Oct. 18 meeting that Summers sent a letter in response to Stemler.
The city provided the Daily Press a copy of this letter — dated June 28 — in which Summers briefly restates some points from Stemler’s letter and says he will invite him to attend the training when it was scheduled. The letter included each City Council member, as well as Hart and City Clerk Andrea Flores, in a “CC” line at its close.
Barstowtoda062821 From Bar by West Hub on Scribd
Yet, Deputy District Attorney Ron Webster told the Daily Press on Oct. 20 that “I cannot find anything to suggest that our office or Phil Stemler directly received a letter in response to his letter.”
After the Daily Press shared a copy of the document the city provided, Webster said, “I have shown Phil Stemler the letter that you sent me and that was the first that he had seen it or was aware of it.”
Hart remembered Summers emailing city leadership to say he would send a response to the May 28 letter from Stemler, but said he never actually saw the response letter in question.
Summers sent an email to Stemler on Oct. 21 thanking him for “the heads-up phone call this morning” and attaching a copy of “the response letter I sent back in June.”
Summers to Stem Ler 1021 by West Hub on Scribd
Summers sent another email one week later informing Stemler and the Daily Press that the training promised six months ago would occur on Nov. 15.
It is unclear if the District Attorney’s Office has responded to any of Summers’ recent emails, or if Stemler or any other officials will accept his invite to attend the City Council meeting this month.
Charlie McGee covers the city of Barstow and its surrounding communities for the Daily Press. He is also a Report for America corps member with the GroundTruth Project, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to supporting the next generation of journalists in the U.S. and around the world. McGee may be reached at 760-955-5341 or cmcgee@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @bycharliemcgee.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Narratives clash after DA found Barstow leaders likely broke laws
