Attorneys for the city of Chula Vista filed a protective order in the depositions of the city clerk and Mayor Mary Casillas Salas in a lawsuit challenging open government.
If Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal grants the order it will prevent the mayor and City Clerk Donna Norris from going under oath to answer any questions about the process used in appointing Councilman Steve Miesen to the City Council, a process currently in a legal battle over its legality.
Chula Vista resident Chris Shilling and the advocacy group San Diegans for Open Government filed a lawsuit last February contending that council members and the mayor violated the Ralph M. Brown Act — the state’s open meeting law — in appointing Miesen to a vacant City Council seat on Jan. 23.
The lawsuit contends the mayor and council members allegedly held a serial meeting with the city clerk by emailing their votes for potential candidates to move into the interview round.
Those votes, Shilling argues, were not held in public as they should be, based on the Brown Act.
Miesen was appointed to the council seat that formerly belonged to Casillas Salas before she was elected mayor last November.
Open government attorney Marco Gonzalez, who represents Shilling and SanDOG, said the city wants to protect the mayor because she has something to hide.
“The city continues to be afraid to let the public know exactly how the vote (for candidates) went down,” Gonzalez said. “We see this motion for a protective order as just another step in the city’s desire to not provide transparency.
“If you’re the mayor, if you’re an elected official, what do you have to hide? Why are they fighting so hard? Why are they so scared to come before a deposition?” Gonzalez said.
Casillas Salas said she couldn’t comment on pending litigation but called Gonzalez’s claim “silly.”
Bart Miesfeld, head litigator for the city of Chula Vista, did not return numerous phone messages seeking comment for this story.
A hearing for the protective order is scheduled for July 2016 but Gonzalez said he is trying to get the hearing expedited.
He also said the order feeds into the city’s “delay tactic” because the order will be heard close to the November election and this aspect of remedy won’t be relevant.
Last Tuesday the City Council for the first time used an interim process to fill vacancies on the Growth Oversight Management Oversight Commission, Parks and Recreation Commission and the Civil Service Commission.
Under the interim process, council members have to cast votes in the open and not email them to the city clerk.
The city agreed to use this interim process in exchange for Shilling dropping a preliminary injunction that could have prevented Miesen from casting any tie-breaking votes and being included in a quorum.
Shilling said he is happy to have forced the city to follow the law.
“It feels good to know that these specific commissions will appoint legally if only on an interim basis,” he said. “It will still take the ruling of a judge to make this change permanent and include all future City Council appointments.”
