A report issued by the Santa Barbara County General Services Department in November recommended that members of the Santa Ynez Airport Authority board of directors receive training in the Brown Act, the law that mandates public meetings of legislative bodies in California.
The recommendation is one of several made in the report, which was requested by the Board of Supervisors in May 2014. This particular recommendation came as a result of a complaint to the District Attorney’s Office that the airport’s board of directors violated the Brown Act during a meeting the previous year.
According to the report, the board held a closed session meeting in September 2013 to discuss a maintenance hangar lease proposal for the Sheriff’s Aviation Unit. However, the meeting was supposed to be public. The report also states that the board didn’t post its agenda on its website 72 hours before the meeting, as is required by law.
The Airport Authority took control of the airport from the county in 1993. The airport is used to support air operations for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department and is a staging area for wildfire operations. Because the Airport Authority operates under a public-private partnership, it’s subject to the open meetings law.
A competitor from a commercial aviation company notified the board of the violation, according to board President Shawn Knight. A subsequent meeting was held in November to discuss the company’s alternate plan for the hangar, the report stated, but the board approved the Sheriff’s proposal anyway.
Knight said that some meetings are exempt from the law, such as lease negotiations, but he couldn’t recall which portion of the meeting should’ve been closed.
He agreed with the recommendation and calls it a learning moment.
“I agree for us to have regular ongoing training so we don’t put ourselves in hot water,” Knight told the Sun.
Knight—who has served on several public bodies in the past, including local school boards—said he is familiar with the Brown Act, but that other members may not be.
The board comprises unelected volunteers, some of whom Knight said have never served on a public body.
An agreement between the airport and the county states that the board must be composed of 40 percent users and 60 percent non-users, or members who don’t fly, own, or lease an aircraft from the airport.
Sometimes it can be a challenge to find members who don’t have some sort of an interest in aviation, Knight said.
“The agreement is that you don’t only have people who represent their own best interests,” Knight said.
Other than the issue with the Brown Act, the report states the airport is “financially stable, has healthy reserves, steady revenue sources,” and that the meetings are conducted professionally.
This article appears in Nov 17-24, 2016.