Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra’s complaints about not being notified of community events being attended by the mayor – and her idea for an official policy to notify all councilmembers – was heard last week. But after 18 minutes of discussion the council decided to make no changes.
Vierra has complained that she’s been excluded from events and denied the opportunity to also represent the city as a member of the council.
She cited her frustration of being a spectator at the San Francisco Earthquakes soccer game at the Stanford University stadium only to be surprised to hear that Mayor Javier Lopez and Councilman Daniel Martinez were coming forward to present a certificate from the city of Ceres as the hometown of player Cade Cowell. Vierra said Martinez was included and she was not.
“I’m literally sitting in the crowd and they’re like, ‘Here representing the city of Ceres are these two people’ and I’m like, what am I?,” said Vierra last week. “I thought I was part of the council as well. So I … just want to make sure that everything is going out equally to everyone and everyone’s getting the same opportunity to participate in the same events of representing Ceres that does not violate the Brown Act.”
City Attorney Nubia Goldstein said the City Council Rules and Procedures handbook doesn’t have any formal rules requiring notification for all councilmembers but the practice has been that if the city is producing a certificate or proclamation that the mayor can delegate who can present it. For other events, like Chamber of Commerce events or ground-breakings, there has been no internal system to notify councilmembers.
Vice Mayor Bret Silveira agreed that a “clear cut process” is needed and how to get information disseminated to all councilmembers.
The mayor said he has always CC’d the city clerk, city manager and city attorney and suggested that City Clerk Fallon Martin should pass along information to others on the council.
After Goldstein suggested her ideas could be included in the council handbook, the mayor asked if it was a long or short list and was told they were in the staff report.
In a nutshell, she said the basic rule should be if there is a citywide community event of general interest, there will be a weekly email sent to all the council from the city manager’s office. That email will note if a proclamation or certificate is to be issued.
Councilman James Casey said the council spent a lot of time talking about the issue when it should be readily apparent “to respect each other up here, give everybody the same opportunity.”
Councilman Daniel Martinez said Martin does a great job of informing the council about events and said there were some events he didn’t know about and “I didn’t take it personally.” He said that adding more rules would “give us an opportunity for violations where we don’t have them now.”
The consensus of the council was not to change policy, with Silveira and Vierra outvoted by Casey, Lopez and Martinez.
