The Brown Act: How about it HILKEY

Open-government advocate wants board to rescind action to terminate employee

A closed-door decision on Dec. 3 by the Fontana Unified School District to fire an administrator may have violated the state’s open meeting law. According to Richard McKee, immediate past-president of the California First Amendment Coalition, the vote to fire Herman Hilkey, director of facilities expansion and special projects, was illegal because the meeting agenda failed to state that a discussion to terminate an employee was going to take place. As a consequence, the public was denied the opportunity to offer input before the board decided to terminate Hilkey’s employment – a clear violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act, McKee contended.

District lawyer John Dietrich said it is unlikely the board will overturn the decision to terminate Hilkey, as requested by McKee, because district officials believe the agenda was accurate. District officials contend the law was followed because the agenda listed the section of law that allows closed discussions of employee hiring, employment, evaluations, discipline or dismissal. The district could fix the situation by clarifying the board’s public report of what it did, Dietrich said.

McKee said that would not be enough. "They did not provide an opportunity for public comment, and they did not properly report the action taken. All of these demand they rescind the action. Do it again. Give the public a chance to comment," McKee said.

Later that month, McKee confronted the board about other possible Brown Act violations. Upon hearing McKee’s new allegations, the board voted unanimously to release information on their Dec. 3 firing of Hilkey. Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Ontario, 1/11/04, 1/23/04