Amador County – Three Amador Water Agency board members cited First Amendments rights to free speech in last week’s discussion of a paper published by District 3 Director Don Cooper in late January with information about the proposed Gravity Supply Line project. District 4 Director Debbie Dunn requested the issue be placed on last Thursday’s agenda and criticized Cooper for sending a 4-page e-mail co-directors of the Upcountry Community Council, who passed the papers on to their group’s members before Cooper spoke to UCC in early February. Dunn, co-founder and former co-director of Upcountry Council, was admonished by 2 current UCC members, including Linda Stroh and Sherry Curtis. Stroh said Dunn was “very unprofessional and “verbally abusive” to Cooper at the meeting.” She said Dunn singled out 4 of Cooper’s issues and used UCC as a platform “to address this paper and slam Mr. Cooper.” Dunn said “what I did was, I stood up as a board member” to “make sure the public has the truth” and facts and knows the source of the information. Dunn said she wanted UCC to know Cooper’s paper did not represent the AWA board on the GSL. Dunn said one of the items was “PG&E rate conditional increases and hearings” regarding “class-action lawsuits that raise rates.” Cooper said “there was a lot of first-person intensity” in his writing, but UCC requested some information they “could utilize as generating discussion.” He noted the council’s limited time, and said he wanted UCC’s to see GSL information that would generate discussion. Cooper said: “I did not do this all by myself.” He said per existing board policy, anything they do as board members should be run through the General Manger, and he did that. He said he wrote the document and exchanged it 3 or 4 times with Interim General Manager Gene Mancebo for review. He said he thought “it was appropriate in a business sense to be able to do that,” and that sharing it with all board members would be a violation of the Brown Act “and I did not think that was absolutely necessary.” Curtis said “The way that this was brought up here, and in Upcountry, was a disgrace.” She said UCC “knew that our request was not an official position of AWA.” She said Dunn could have submitted her own report on the issue before the UCC meeting, and had time to do so, but chose to address Cooper instead. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Wednesday, 03 March 2010 17:00
Freedom of Speech, Brown Act Central to AWA Discussion of GSL Paper
Written by Tom-
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Amador County – Three Amador Water Agency board members cited First Amendments rights to free speech in last week’s discussion of a paper published by District 3 Director Don Cooper in late January with information about the proposed Gravity Supply Line project. District 4 Director Debbie Dunn requested the issue be placed on last Thursday’s agenda and criticized Cooper for sending a 4-page e-mail co-directors of the Upcountry Community Council, who passed the papers on to their group’s members before Cooper spoke to UCC in early February. Dunn, co-founder and former co-director of Upcountry Council, was admonished by 2 current UCC members, including Linda Stroh and Sherry Curtis. Stroh said Dunn was “very unprofessional and “verbally abusive” to Cooper at the meeting.” She said Dunn singled out 4 of Cooper’s issues and used UCC as a platform “to address this paper and slam Mr. Cooper.” Dunn said “what I did was, I stood up as a board member” to “make sure the public has the truth” and facts and knows the source of the information. Dunn said she wanted UCC to know Cooper’s paper did not represent the AWA board on the GSL. Dunn said one of the items was “PG&E rate conditional increases and hearings” regarding “class-action lawsuits that raise rates.” Cooper said “there was a lot of first-person intensity” in his writing, but UCC requested some information they “could utilize as generating discussion.” He noted the council’s limited time, and said he wanted UCC’s to see GSL information that would generate discussion. Cooper said: “I did not do this all by myself.” He said per existing board policy, anything they do as board members should be run through the General Manger, and he did that. He said he wrote the document and exchanged it 3 or 4 times with Interim General Manager Gene Mancebo for review. He said he thought “it was appropriate in a business sense to be able to do that,” and that sharing it with all board members would be a violation of the Brown Act “and I did not think that was absolutely necessary.” Curtis said “The way that this was brought up here, and in Upcountry, was a disgrace.” She said UCC “knew that our request was not an official position of AWA.” She said Dunn could have submitted her own report on the issue before the UCC meeting, and had time to do so, but chose to address Cooper instead. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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