Bagley-Keene – It’s The Law

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Bagley-Keene – It’s The Law

by David Gurney

In the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative's cynical attempts to avoid responsibility for breaking the law when they banned recording and public comment at their public meetings, they have come up with a creative variety of dodges and excuses.

First came the Executive Director’s repeated mantra of denial, when he told an outraged press that the MLPA Initiative was an “advisory committee,” not subject to the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act.

Ken Wiseman repeated this claim to the media after having me unlawfully arrested for recording a public MLPAI meeting. During depositions, Wiseman changed his story, claiming his illegal acts were committed in an attempt to shield the “Initiative” from adverse publicity in the press.

Later came the whimper of Kearns and West facilitator Eric Poncelet, who has stumbled over his own words trying to claim that certain MLPAI public meetings were “workshops,” and so exempt from California state law. Poncelet also aggressively prohibited lawful recording of these public meetings.

And recently, MLPA Initiative Program Manager Melissa Miller-Henson has attempted to absolve the whole endeavor from any legal accountability whatsoever, by claiming the sophisticated privatized group was not a group at all, but simply an idea.

To top it off, Eric Bloom, the Fish and Game warden and former State Parks ranger with his own personal agenda, perjured himself under oath during depositions by claiming this reporter “resisted” his unlawful arrest.

When the story of perpetrators doesn’t hold together, and something just doesn’t seem right, it’s usually because – something just isn’t right.

Because reality tells a very different story, one that’s as simple as the truth. And that is: the MLPA “Initiative” to create so-called "marine protected areas" was entirely covered under California law, and the Bagley-Keene Open Meetings Act.

The following excerpts are from the Citizens Media Law Project:

What Government Bodies Are Covered?

…The term “state body” also applies to committees, boards, and commissions who exercise authority delegated to it by a “state body” (as defined above), and to advisory committees or groups if they are created by formal action of a state body and have more than three members. The term may also apply to a board, commission, or agency that appears to be private or non-governmental in nature, if it receives funds provided by a “state body” and includes a member of a state body serving in his or her official capacity.

What is a Meeting?

…Ordinarily, a meeting involves some sort of action taken by the public body (resolutions passed, decisions made, etc.), but the term “meeting” applies to deliberations and information-gathering or fact-finding sessions as well.

Public Meetings

…If you attend a public meeting (i.e., a meeting of a governmental body required to be open to the public by law) in California, you may make an audio or video recording unless the state or local body holding the meeting determines that the recording disrupts the proceedings by noise, illumination, or obstruction of view.

For more, go to: CMLP, “Open Meeting Laws in California”

When will the defendants in this lawsuit come clean, and admit they made a mistake?

Maybe never. Only time will tell.