The city of Solvang has been rocked by changes in recent months, some administrative, some cultural, some the result of a difference in vision.
At a recent City Council meeting—which are typically scheduled for Mondays, but was moved to Wednesday, Jan. 15—the controversial item for the evening was the ouster of Joan Jamieson, who served on the city’s Board of Architectural Review (BAR).
Jamieson, a longtime fixture of the city’s government, was removed by a unanimous 4-0 vote, with City Councilmember Robert Clarke recusing himself from the vote due to what he called a potential conflict of interest.
Jamieson, who was a City Council member for 10 years, had headed the BAR, which acts as a sort of city-sanctioned homeowners’ association. The BAR keeps tabs on city buildings and gives notice for things that may be broken or don’t quite fit in with the spirit of the city’s Danish heritage.
The fifth item on the City Council’s Jan. 15 agenda—for Jamieson’s removal—was “specifically requested by” Mayor Ryan Toussaint, according to City Attorney Chip Wullbrandt, who introduced the item.
Wullbrandt spent the bulk of his time on a series of “reply all” emails Jamieson sent out to BAR members. Wullbrandt indicated that he was concerned about the emails’ potential for violating the Brown Act.
“You should always avoid hitting ‘reply all,’” said Wullbrandt, who wasn’t involved in conducting the city’s most recent Brown Act training. “It becomes so easy to create a serial meeting.”
The emails Wullbrandt was referring to were sent to him by a “reply all” recipient who had been trained in the Brown Act and was concerned that the email violated the act.
“In this case, there was a ‘reply all’ sent back which urged that the other members of the BAR come to this meeting and urged that they take certain positions that were going to be on your agenda,” Wullbrandt said about the Jan. 15 meeting. “We’ve had a subsequent conversation. [Jamieson] disagrees with me and believes that her original email was just fine. … There was an action in violation of the Brown Act. Shouldn’t have happened. Shouldn’t happen in the future.”
In public comments, one speaker disputed the city’s conclusion that Jamieson eschewed Brown Act norms.
“The Brown Act doesn’t prevent you from communicating, and basically this email suggests the members of the BAR attend a City Council meeting,” said Peter Laird, a Solvang resident and attorney who had reviewed the emails before making his comment.
He encouraged City Council members to review the government code, which he said addresses the Brown Act and lists various considerations for the act.
“It’s my opinion … that this does not rise to a violation of the Brown Act,” Laird said. “I’m also somewhat surprised that this matter is being brought before the City Council in a public forum. It seems to me that this could have been or should have been resolved in a different manner.”
Local businessman Esko Kenny Lama followed Laird on the microphone, calling Jamieson’s opinions “sick and racist” in heated comments delivered from a written statement.
“I’m very sad and mad because my 75-year-old landlord was bullied by Joanie Jamieson,” Lama read.
He went on to accuse Jamieson of attempting to get him evicted and urged the City Council to remove her.
“Stop dividing the community and dividing people,” Lama said.
Jamieson stood in her own defense, saying she didn’t know who Lama’s landlord was. She also defended her emails, saying they were merely to provide information, not to influence.
“First of all, I was shocked to see that the mayor wanted to remove me from the BAR without discussing it with me first,” Jamieson said. “Chip’s email to me was very accusatory, and I didn’t appreciate the fact that [Chip] didn’t talk to me. We’ve known each other a long time, and I would have appreciated that very much.”
She explicitly denied the allegation against her regarding the Brown Act violation.
“You can see what power I have because none of them came to the meeting,” she said. “No one from the BAR is here.”
She said she does have a right to remind her members of meetings and attacked Wullbrandt’s claim that it was a whistleblower who provided him and the council with the emails.
But the Brown Act violations were not the entire story. Mayor Toussaint aired his own grievances during the meeting, saying that Jamieson was heavily involved in helping the flow of money to the Solvang Conference and Visitors Bureau before the last city elections.
During Toussaint’s remarks, Jamieson laughed while others interrupted him. Before Toussaint could finish, Jamieson said, “I resign.”
Her remark was quickly followed by the council’s vote to remove her.
“There are other serious issues to get rid of her,” Councilmember Chris Djernaes said. “For conduct unbecoming a public official.”
Councilmember Karen Waite fought through derisive laughter from the audience to intervene.
“Chris, for your own benefit, you need to just be quiet right now,” Waite said.
The City Council meeting was nearly five hours long, a common length for those meetings, but quickly built up more than 1,000 views on YouTube. No other video on the city’s YouTube channel, which dates back three years, has had half as many views.
Jamieson’s dismissal comes in stride with a series of other changes the city has undergone. It broke ties with the SCVB. The council then took the last-minute step to hire IDK Events to manage its annual Julefest, which the city is attempting to brand as its own season complete with weekend activities to try and draw more overnight guests.
Those changes to Julefest were broadly lauded during public comment at the Jan. 15 City Council meeting by business owners and Tracey Beard, the executive director of the Solvang Chamber of Commerce.
The City Council also discussed potential changes to the BAR and whether its functions are serving the city as best as possible. The vision for Solvang remains in flux among City Council members.
“What is the identity of Solvang and how do we manifest that in our architecture,” Djernaes said. “In our stores and restaurants and our streets.”
Djernaes suggested doing a series of workshops to try and gather community ideas and support for what the city might do to update itself.
Djernaes’ vision includes a city with different districts, and used Disneyland as example, each section complete with its own look and identity.
“I don’t know that the BAR has the ability to even discuss that. It’s not in their purview,” Djernaes said. “So I think it’s time that we take a fresh look at the BAR and what it does.”
This article appears in Jan 23-30, 2020.