Photo Courtesy of SWC
By Alexa Lima
Time and tide wait for no man.
Neither does the governing board as Trustee Robert Moreno discovered.
He said he did not care because he had a point to make.
Moreno stepped outside to boycott the first 30 minutes of the November governing board meeting in protest of a decision by board president Don Dumas to unilaterally move the start time up a half an hour.
Moreno said he staged his 30-minute protest to make a point about transparency and the board’s duty to serve the community. He said he received an email stating the board meeting was moved from 7 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Though the change was legal and the notification met the letter of the law, Moreno said it did not give enough time for community members who wanted to attend the meeting to adjust their schedules. Moving the meeting time up, while convenient for the trustees, could make it harder for working members of the community to engage with the board, he said.
Moreno said his main concern was the way the time change was handled. There was no board vote on the issue and it was not communicated to the public.
“If they are not transparent regarding this kind of small issue, what else are they not transparent about?” he said.
Moreno said he was absent from the September board meeting. There was an item on the agenda to revise the governing board meeting schedule and change some dates, but no mention of a time change. The agenda clearly states that open session starts at 7 p.m.
“The proposed revised 2024 schedule of meetings is submitted for the Governing Board’s consideration and approval for meetings to be held on the third Monday of each month,” read the item. “If the third Monday coincides with a holiday, the board meeting will be held on the second or fourth Monday. Meetings will begin at 5:30 pm, immediately followed by close session and reconvene in open session at 7 p.m.”
Governing board president Don Dumas said he has the authority to change start times of meetings without the board’s approval. He started the meeting by apologizing for any inconvenience caused by the 6:30 p.m. start time.
“Hopefully this will help us finish our meetings earlier,” he said.
Dumas said his motivation was to use time more efficiently. He said closed session meetings rarely take 90 minutes. Most, he said, end in 45-50 minutes, causing board members to wait until 7 p.m. Dumas said board meetings are lasting longer and he was hearing feedback from members of the community eager to get home earlier.
Trustee Corina Soto said she did not agree with Dumas’ action and understood Moreno’s point.
“I find it really disrespectful (to change the schedule) with three days notice,” she said “Why are we even board members if they can flip things?”
Later in the meeting Moreno said he agreed with the change but not the way it was handled.
He said the board should have announced the new start time two or three meetings in advance of the actual change.
“People who might have showed up at 7 p.m. for public comment would have missed that opportunity to speak as they were not at the board meeting on time,” he said. “That’s not fair to people in the community, especially working people driving home in traffic. We should be thinking of them because they are who we work for.”
