At the beginning of Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, County Counsel Charlotte Scott replied to a question from Supervisor Ted Williams about meeting with a citizen to straighten out a Planning & Building government code compliance complain with a Mendo lawyer version of a Marie Antoinette remark: “We are an internal services department, so I am not going to be able to meet with members of the public regarding advice to my client [the County] necessarily. But I can meet with my client [the County] and give advice and I think the appropriate contact to start with would be to just give direction to Planning and Building to follow up and work with counsel and report back to the board.”
No date was offered or given. Typically, when no date is given, the “direction” is ignored or indefinitely postponed, or discussed out of the public eye, and no report is given to the Board in public because that is considered privileged communication between the Board and its attorney.
A little later, Helen Sizemore of Ukiah, a principal circulator of the petition to recall District Attorney David Eyster: “I’m concerned about the public service of the District Attorney. He’s a public servant. We should be able to meet with him. I have attempted to do that. I’ve gone to the office at the first floor of the courthouse and he has people there who telephone his office. He has a secretary that has never responded to my phone calls, and I’ve never been able to meet with him. So I think that you are his boss, basically. Who is his boss? How can he not meet with the public if they want to meet with him?”
Supervisor John Haschak: “He’s an elected official. So that means the boss is the public.”
Sizemore: “So how do we get to meet with somebody who is an elected official? All of his people do not respond? I’m sure I’m not the only one that has the desire to meet with him and is not successful. So I’m just bringing that to your attention. I don’t know who else to talk to.”
Supervisor Madeline Cline (seemingly shocked that there was a problem): “Have you gone to DA’s office to meet with him in person?”
Sizemore: “Yes! I have. I went to the courthouse. His office is on the third floor and the office where you meet his people is on the first floor and there’s… I don’t know. Even if I went to the third floor I don’t even know which door is his and it’s not accessible to me. He’s got a lot of gates. Anyway thank you.”
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