Colin Pearce, an attorney at Duane Morris, a full-service international law firm, responded to the Cure and Correct letter sent by Hopland ratepayer Vernon Budinger on Thursday, December 4.
Pearce denied all Budinger’s claims, including his assertion that the ten-minute limitation on public comment on the rate increase imposed at the October 9 meeting was not compliant with the act. Instead Pearce suggested it was a policy that the board of directors for the Hopland Public Utility District had previously adopted.
Budinger said he is unaware of any such policy, and he noted that the policy was not enforced at a previous meeting he attended in August.
Neither Joan Norry, president of the Board of Director of the Hopland Public Utility District, nor Jared Walker, the deputy director of water resources for the Ukiah Valley Water Authority, which provides operations services to Hopland responded to a request for comment on Thursday.
Norry had previously responded herself to a Cure and Correct letter sent by Hopland ratepayer Matthew LaFever on October 12. She stated in the response that “the 10-minute time limit referenced applies only to non-agendized items, as clearly noted on the agenda.”
This was only partially true.
In fact, Norry gave specific instructions to the public about the time limit for commenting on the the large rate increase:
“For the timing, for the Brown Act, for speakers on a particular item, the maximum amount of time to speak on an item is 10 minutes, and you’re allowed three minutes each. And so use your time wisely around questions and answers so that everybody can get some questions answered, because we will take questions and answers for 10 minutes.”
Board member Carol Gunter-Hall interjects: “A total of 10 minutes per topic. Per topic. Are we clear on that?”
Ratepayer Vernon Budinger says, “No. So per topic, that means when we get to the issue, the rate increase, that there’s only 10 minutes of discussion?”
Gunter-Hall: “Total, total. So if you divide it, if 15 of you want to speak, you better not repeat yourself. “
Budinger confirmed in an interview he is ready to go to court to enforce the Brown Act. Under the law, he will have 15 days to “commence an action.”
Read our Brown Act coverage:
