Related Story: Town council members say chair hard to contact, lacks leadership
by Timothy Rutt
Tuesday night’s town council meeting was supposed to be a routine passing of the baton: new councilmembers sworn in and a new slate of officers appointed.
And, after a lengthy meeting, nothing quite worked out as planned.
Traditionally, the new and returning councilmembers are sworn in by a representative from Supervisor Michael Antonovich’s office, as the council serves as the supervisor’s eyes, ears, and advisers. Since no representative showed, council chair Bernardean Broadous conducted the swearing-in.
Later, the new council delayed the scheduled appointment of Ron Adams. After no candidate ran for the vacant seat in Census Tract 4603.02, Adams submitted an application to be appointed by the council. Marge Nichols, wearing a Neighbors Building a Better Altadena shirt, expressed that more public notice should have been given that the seat was vacant and open for applications. The council agreed to delay the appointment by one month to allow other candidates to come forward.
Election controversy
But what occuped the bulk of the meeting was the selection of council officers. A committee of outgoing councilmembers presented a slate of incumbent members — Diane Marcussen for chair, Okorie Ezieme for vice chair, Brent Musson for recording secretary, Richard Moon for corresponding secretary, and Amy Cienfuegos as treasurer.
But that move was opposed by Eric PIerce, who had just received a notice of appreciation for his actions as Election Committee Chair earlier in the meeting. Pierce, who is not on the council, said that Marcussen and Musson’s actions during the election process should be taken into account.
“My point is that Ms. Marcussen specifically got in the way and interfered with us bringing that to the communty in such the way it did,” Pierce said. “ My biggest issue with Mr. Musson is that two years in a row he has promised to put the information on the ATC website and was assured we did not need our own. I learned from the year before and again this year the application packets were not posted on the Altadena Town Council website until over a week after the applications were due … I have big issues with these two in this responsibility if we plan on keeping the town council more open and more easily accessible by people.
“I have never experienced more people trying to suppress what we were trying to get than these two. I don’t feel that they’re a good fit for the executive committee, and I can’t even imagine what next year’s elections would be like …”
Publicity roadblocks
Pierce said that part of his plan for publicizing the election was to establish a dedicated election website and Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as create signs, but ran into opposition.
“All those were vehemently opposed [by Marcussen and Musson] for what seemed to be the sole purpose of not getting that information out,” Pierce told the council
Pierce told Altadenablog he had sent an email to every member of the council and others involved with the election with a recounting of events, which he said the two members rejected his plans without pursuing alternatives.
The email states in part that, after a contentious phone meeting between the Election Committee and the council’s executive committee where he floated the plan, “The Executive Committee promised to post everything the Election Committee needed on the ATC Website. Nothing was posted, including the candidate application packet, until over a week after the applications were already due.”
Pierce also told Altadenablog he received an email from Broadous, confirming the executive committee’s decision that the Election Committee not go forward with its own publicity plans.
Bylaw contradictions
Pierce also said that his committee pointed out a contradiction in the council bylaws, between Section 3, where a candidate needs to live in their census tract for at least two years and Section 12, where it says candidates have to have lived in Altadena — in any census tract — for two years. That could create a situation where a resident could run but not be seated because they moved across town less than two years before.
The council did not make changes to the bylaws to square the conflict at the April meeting, but with the election deadlines looming, councilmembers issued a flurry of emails in late April before culminating in an emergency email vote to make the changes. Pierce said in his general email, which did not identify Marcussen and Musson by name, that they attempted “to hold up that vote by false allegations that the Election Committee made serious mistakes.”
But there was still no publicity plan going forward, Pierce said. With the deadline for election looming, no publicity going out, and no candidate packets available on the ATC website, PIerce told Altadenablog that Broadous called days after the email flurry to ask “what do you need to get this election done?”
Social media, website activated
With Broadous’s approval, he said, he fired up the website, Facebook and Twitter accounts by April 23. Candidate packets were avaiilable on the Altadena Elections website, weeks before the Altadena Town Council website had them up.
But it wasn’t only election process problems: new councilman Bill Ward expressed concerns that the slate was only veteran members and that new members were not part of the process. Broadous — who said that she had put in her name to continue as chair, even though it wasn’t in the final slate — asked nominating committee members, outgoing councilmen Ken Roberts and Doug Colliflower, if they had interviewed every council member, old and new, before coming up the the list of names. Roberts said that no, according the council bylaws, they could only consider sitting council members.
(Last year, however, the nominating committee put the newly-elected Broadous on the slate even though she was not a sitting member at the time: http://www.altadenablog.com/2012/07/new-and-returning-members-sworn-in-at-tuesday-nights-council-meeting.html. When this was brought up to Roberts and Colliflower outside the meeting, they expressed surprise)
The councll voted to postpone election of a new executive committee until next month, but also allowed the named candidates to make some statements.
In the case of Marcussen and Musson, it was to defend themselves against Pierce’s charges.
Musson said that he launched the council’s current website and kept it up for one year, but gave up that position when he became recording secretary last year. He had asked for help, and recently councliman Richard Moon stepped up to take it on, but admitted it was not updated as it should be.
(Pierce told Altadenablog after the meeting that Musson was always his contact to put election materials on the website, and specifically was instructed to give the information to Musson so he could put it online).
Musson said that one of his issues was that the council should be very specific about the use of its name, and a separate Altadena election website and social media accounts not under direct control of the council would be “wholly inappropriate.”
Councilman Richard Moon countered that the election committee was careful about keeping the identity of the council and committee separate, which is why they chose “altadenaelection” as its identity for websites and social media.
Marcussen said that the fault of the bad communication was the executive committee — “It was not I who made the decision, it was the executive committee who made the decision.” Marcussen said that “the items I brought up that Eric sees as roadblocks were procedural processes to try and keep the chaos level down a bit, and were never intended to block the elections in any way …
“in the end, we were not organized … we were not working well as a council … the election was a success because Eric went off the rails, if you will … he went and did and saw and conquered because we were not doing a good job as a council in giving him instructions.”
ADDENDA Nov. 13, 2013: The following story appeared Aug. 7, 2013, at this link: http://www.altadenablog.com/2013/08/town-council-members-say-chair-hard-to-contact-lacks-leadership.html
They’re also saying that the flap over the elections at the July 16 council meeting was orchestrated to malign her designated successor in a public forum, thus clearing the way for Broadous to continue as chair.
Executive committee delayed
“I won’t go so far as to say Bernardean doesn’t care about Altadena, but ultimately what she cares about is herself and her ego and not being elected as continuing chair … has a drastic effect on her ego,” said former councilman Ken Roberts. Roberts was one of the outgoing councilmembers who passed over Broadous in favor of nominating Diane Marcussen, CT 4613, as chair for the 2013-2014 term
The month following a town council election, the first action after certain ceremonial and housekeeping items is to seat the new councilmembers, followed by choosing the officers for the year, called the executive committee. Before the meeting, a committee of outgoing councilmembers talks to existing and incoming councilmembers to sound out candidates for chair, vice-chair, treasurer, corresponding secretary, and recording secretary, as well as see who the other councilmembers would support in those roles. The officers’ slate is then presented to the council as a whole, which usually rubber-stamps the selection. It is an internal process, conducted publicly. This year the selection committee was Roberts, Doug Colliflower, and Greg Middleton.
Unusual events
According to Roberts, several unusual things happened in the July 16 meeting:
- The swearing-in of new councilmembers, rather than being near the top of the meeting, was moved to the eighth item, nearer to the end. It was later moved up closer to the beginning of the meeting after this was pointed out during the meeting itself.
- There was an agenda item for public comments on the officer’s slate — which several councilmembers have said has never happened before. (The July 2012 and 2011 agendas do not have a public comment scheduled for this item).
- Rather than the selection committee making a report and delivering the slate to the council, Broadous made the verbal report herself from the selection committee’s written copy, which Roberts says he provided to her on request the day before — leaving Roberts and fellow committee member Doug Colliflower silent at the podium during their own presentation.
“There has never been, in my years on the council … public comment about the executive team,” Roberts said. “That is really internal to the council, but brought up in a public forum because it’s a public meeting.”
That unusual agenda, Roberts said, was drawn up by the chair: Broadous.
During the public comment period on the executive slate, the sole comment came from three-time election chair Eric Pierce. Pierce, a community volunteer who is not on the town council, said that Marcussen and councilman Brent Musson opposed Pierce’s ideas to publicize the election and tried to prevent the election from going forward. Pierce said that, based on their actions, they may not be fit candidates as officers.
There was a flurry of election emails between councilmembers and Pierce in April, before the election. Pierce’s committee wanted to make some changes in the election bylaws, and wanted to launch a separate election website and social media accounts. Marcussen and Musson both said that they were concerned that Pierce was going off the rails, because the council at the time — including Broadous — did not want to turn to social media and didn’t want official election information out of the control of the council.
Later, Broadous, on her own, gave Pierce the go-ahead to start the website and social media, and to purchase signs.
Marcussen and Musson denied that their actions were improper — they were, they say, necessary oversight of the election committee, which they felt trying to do things beyond its authority. While Marcussen says that the council was not on top of things as it should have been, “I think it’s ridiculous that I would try to stop an election — it’s ludicrous.”
Musson said that didn’t want to put the stop to the election, but at the same time felt Pierce was trying to go above his authority as election chair by establishing a website, Facebook page, and Twitter account separate from town council.
Musson also said that he was timing Pierce’s comments during the July 16 meeting. While public comments are usually restricted to three minutes — subject to being gaveled off by the chair — Pierce went on for seven minutes, Musson said.
Website control
One of the acknowledged problems was that the council’s official website was not updated to include the package of documents for potential candidates in a timely manner. Musson said that, at the time, there was nobody really in charge of the council’s website.
Musson said that he was in charge of updating the website during the 2011-2012 session, but once he was made recording secretary for the 2012-2013 term, he told the council that he could not continue. According to Musson, Broadous, who is part-time faculty in the Pan-African Studies department at Cal State Northridge, suggested a CSUN student to run the website. Musson said that the student asked Musson for all of his sign-on information, including his password. Musson said that he refused to turn that over, fearing it was an attempt to shut him out of website access. The volunteer later apparently quit administering the website.
(Pierce told Altadenablog that Musson instructed him to supply him with the candidate package so it could be put electronically on the website. Musson said that he told that to Pierce in 2012, but not this year, as he was no longer responsible for the website.)
Strategic conflict?
Even though the unusual public comment period for executive committee was on the agenda that was distributed before the July 16 council meeting, Pierce said that he had not arranged it with Broadous beforehand — he submitted a “request to make public comment” card during the course of the meeting.
Roberts has another theory: “Internally, what she did was very strategic in allowing Eric to to come up here with the potential of frankly disrupting the process … if Diane wasn’t elected, Bernardean would maintain her role, not because of the support of other members. Basically, her thing was open Pandora’s door, discredit Diane … now Bernardean is trying to retain her position without working at it by trying to discredit Diane.
“I think it was very one-sided. I think it was very unfair to [Diane]. [Marcussen] did not seek out that position — we actually sought her out because she was, in the opinion of the nominating committee … the best one for the job.”
Musson, who like Broadous represents CT 4610, said that he was also targeted because “[Broadous} and I have been at odds since she first came on.” One source of conflict was writing the agenda: Musson said that, early on in her term, she asked Musson to write the monthly meeting agendas. Musson said he responded that, according to Robert’s Rules of Order, the chair or vice-chair needs to set meeting agenda, not the recording secretary. Musson said that his refusal became a source of conflict between them.
Communication problems
Broadous was named chair right after winning her seat for CT4610 in 2012. While it is unusual for a first-termer to become chair, Roberts said that Broadous’ experience with the West Altadena Project Area Committee (WAPAC) showed that she could run a meeting and was the best candidate at the time.
But some councilmembers, current and past, have said that she is hard to communicate with. According to Roberts, the chair needs to be easy to reach by phone or email, and Broadous is not. Roberts and Musson both said that she only uses the computer at the Altadena Community Center for emails, and that it may take a week to get a response to a phone message.
Musson said that’s a problem, because “90 percent of [Town Council] communication is by email.”
Marcussen agreed: “It’s totally common knowledge that she’s been extremely hard to get ahold of, which in this environment causes there to be, in my opinion, a lack of leadership … when there are communications going on in the town council on any subject.”
Planning hearings skipped
Since Broadous became chair, there have also been some problems with setting up hearings on planning issues in a timely manner, according to Sussy Nemer. Nemer, field deputy for Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, said that it was “a lot more difficult for county staff to get on the agenda to do presentations .. unlike under [previous chairs] Sandra [Thomas], Gino [Sund}, and Ken [Balder], there are more situations where the town council had to ask for a continuance on planning items.”
One of the major functions of the council is to hear planning issues and send recommendations to the county before a final decision is made. In some cases, Nemer said, persons with planning items skipped the council completely and went right on to county planning because they couldn’t wait for a continuance to allow the town council to hear it.
Nemer said that she had also set aside a regular weekly teleconference with Broadous, but the chair frequently missed it. “I’m willing to say that we had a teleconference, and it didn’t work out,” Nemer said. Along with the hearing extensions that weren’t granted, “ … those are things I think are unique this year, and the product of somebody very busy.”
In the course of writing this story, we have sent an email to Broadous, and left a message with her public number available on the Town Council website asking her to comment. The number on the town council site is a Google Talk number, which requires a computer with an internet connection to connect. She has not responded by press time.
Wow. I don’t know what’s going on. But strange no one has left a comment about this significant story (out 20 hours ago) to provide insights to others! Are Altadenans apathetic about the important issues raised by Eric Pierce, or just reticent to speak up about it in a public forum? I, for one, appreciate Pierce’s willingness and bravery to start a public dialogue about the Town Council, because it concerns all of us who live here.
Thanks, Eric, for speaking up. Beyond the specific election problems, a core issue raised here for me is sharing of ATC information – I can echo Eric’s point of information not getting out. I contacted Mr. Musson a couple of times of the last year regarding putting minutes onto the ATC website and never received a response or immediate action. For many months of the last year, the latest minutes available were from mid-2012. It looks like everything is finally up to date, but I will further add that the April, May or June 2013 minutes are very lacking in detail, to the point that is impossible to tell what was discussed and happened at meetings. Thank you, Altadenablog for filling this void and keeping us up to date!
I am not versed in politics but as an inhabitant of Altadena for many years now, I am concerned about the not-togetherness and aptitude of the Town Council when it comes to routine election procedure and effective communication to the public.
What else is happening/ or not happening that we are not aware of?
Those with inquiring minds should be attending the meetings to find out what’s going on. If you can’t make it, contact your representative and ask what’s going on.
Won’t follow the Brown act, seats that no on runs for, can’t even get election information on their own website… How is the ATC relevant to anything again?