Vallejo backtracks on moving dispatch to waterfront after transparency questions

VALLEJO – The city of Vallejo is reconsidering moving its emergency dispatch center to a waterfront police building after members of the public raised questions about whether the decision violated state open meeting laws.

City spokesperson Christina Lee said in an email on Thursday that the city had not yet made a decision on whether to move the dispatch center. “We are researching a couple of alternate options,” Lee wrote.

Lee added that the city plans to issue a press release on Friday morning regarding the status of the temporary relocation of dispatch operations.

But that is a significant change from a June 20 report to the city council by Chief Innovation Officer & IT Director Naveed Ashraf which states, “The Vallejo City Council has authorized and directed staff to relocate the existing public safety dispatch center from 111 Amador Street to 400 Mare Island Way.”

The city’s plan to move the police dispatch center to the police building at 400 Mare Island Way came as a surprise to many Vallejoans, in part because public notice of the decision was buried in Ashraf’s  report, which was connected with an agenda item requesting council approval to purchase $500,000 in equipment for the new dispatch center.

The request to approve the equipment purchase appeared on the consent calendar, which is generally reserved for routine items to be passed in bulk without discussion. The council unanimously approved the purchase.

In December, the council had allocated $1.5 million to move the dispatch center, but funding documents show that the money was earmarked with the intention of moving emergency dispatch services to city hall.

However, in Ashraf’s June 20 report he wrote, “The city council has given clear directions to staff to relocate the dispatch center to 400 Mare Island Way.”

Prior to the June 20 meeting, Mayor Robert McConnell wrote in an email to the Vallejo Sun that City Manager Mike Malone had privately discussed moving dispatch to 400 Mare Island Way with him. McConnell said that he agreed “with that limited and specific decision.”

“I do not know whether the city manager has individually spoken with other council members on this issue,” McConnell wrote.

McConnell also said in the email that he did not remember the council giving specific direction to move dispatch to 400 Mare Island Way in a public city council meeting.

Resident Anne Carr said during public comment at the next council meeting that it appeared the decision may have violated the Ralph M. Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law.

“The way it looks like the city went about getting agreement from the council looks to me like a Brown Act violation because you cannot get a decision in private about a public resource,” Carr said. “We need to have a public meeting and discussion about it so public views can be considered.”

Carr also penned a letter to council members and city staff calling for them to rescind the decision to move the dispatch to Mare Island Way because it violated the Brown Act.

One of the practices that are prohibited under the act is what is known as a serial meeting.

“You can’t use a game of telephone to get around the open meeting requirement,” First Amendment Coalition legal director David Loy said.

According to Loy, a majority of council members cannot discuss city business outside of a noticed meeting by communicating with each other one after another. “That’s a game of telephone,” he said. “You also cannot do it through an intermediary such as a city manager.”

Loy said that the key factor in determining if this decision constitutes a Brown Act violation would be whether or not it involved a majority of the city council members.

Councilmember Cristina Arriola said that when she discussed the issue in a one-on-one meeting with a staff member she advocated for other options such as a countywide dispatch located at a new facility in Fairfield.

The remaining council members did not respond to questions from the Vallejo Sun about whether they had expressed support to move the dispatch center to 400 Mare Island Way.