Three Simi Valley council members violated open-meeting law, DA finds

Mike Harris | Ventura

The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office has concluded that a June 23 meeting at the Simi Valley Town Center mall attended by a majority of the Simi Valley City Council violated the state’s open-meeting law, the Brown Act.

“It is my conclusion that the event violated the Brown Act and this letter shall serve as a warning to avoid such violations in the future,” Chuck Hughes, a chief deputy district attorney and a Brown Act specialist, wrote in a letter Wednesday to Simi Valley Mayor Bob Huber.

More Simi Valley news:

In response, Simi Valley City Attorney Lonnie Eldridge said, “the city strives to comply with the Brown Act at all times. We will carefully review the District Attorney’s letter, and will examine our policies to ensure the city’s continued compliance with the Brown Act.”

Signed into law in 1953, the Ralph M. Brown Act guarantees the public’s right to attend and participate in meetings of local legislative bodies.

Hughes began a review of the June 23 meeting after the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office received three complaints about it, he wrote.

The meeting was one of Huber’s monthly town hall events for Simi Valley residents in the mall’s community room. It was attended by two other members of the five-member City Council, Mike Judge and Dee Dee Cavanaugh.

The meeting violated the act because “council members heard and participated in a discussion regarding the council’s position on California Senate Bill 54, among other topics,” Hughes wrote.

SB 54 is California’s emotionally charged sanctuary state law. Two days after the meeting, the council, in a formal meeting in its City Hall chambers, reaffirmed its opposition to SB 54. It’s the only council in Ventura County to take such a stand.

Hughes noted that during the discussion at the town hall meeting about the sanctuary state law, “members of the public express(ed) their opinions to the mayor and council members.”

One of those was Simi Valley resident Ruth Luevanos, a SB 54 supporter and one of the three people who later complained to the district attorney about possible Brown Act violations.

“Mayor Huber and council member Judge also discussed the topic,” Hughes wrote. “Council member Cavanaugh was present during the discussions but did not speak on the subject.”

More on the sanctuary law:

Huber told The Star that in response to a question from Luevanos at the town hall event, he said he believed the council, at its June 25 meeting, would reaffirm its previous opposition to the sanctuary state law.

Hughes found that the town hall meeting violated the Brown Act for other reasons as well: it “was not properly noticed and because there was no posted agenda.”

The city maintains that the meeting didn’t violate the act because the town hall event met the “ceremonial occasion exception” to the open-meeting law.

Judge and Cavanaugh said they were at the event in connection with the city honoring a longtime Simi Valley resident, U.S. Army Special Forces Sgt. 1st Class Stephen Cribben, 33, who was killed during combat operations in Afghanistan in November.

Judge and Cavanaugh said they went to the meeting to meet Cribben’s Green Beret unit, which had been unable to attend the City Council’s June 18 meeting where Cribben was honored with a “Gold Star” banner, part of the city’s Armed Forces Banner Program.



Cribben’s Green Beret unit wanted to personally thank the City Council for honoring him, and members indicated they would attend the town hall meeting, according to Deputy City Manager Samantha Argabrite.

While the unit was expected to arrive at the start of the town hall meeting, members did not show up until after it concluded and Judge and Cavanaugh had left, Argabrite said. Huber was still in the area and was able to eventually meet with the unit later that day. He was the only council member who did, Huber and Argabrite said.

Hughes concluded the “ceremonial occasion exception” did not apply to the town hall meeting.

“In this instance, the occasion was not purely ceremonial,” he wrote. The meeting “was intended to be a town hall style exchange of ideas, with only a portion of the event dedicated to ceremonial functions.”

“The three City Council members heard or discussed together various topics pertaining to city business,” he wrote. “The ceremonial portion of the event did not actually take place until after the meeting ended and it was attended only by the mayor. Accordingly, the exemption does not apply.”

Luevanos said Wednesday she welcomed Hughes’ findings.

“I’m glad that justice is being served,” she said. “I’m glad that they’re (the council) being made aware that they’re not following the law.”

Hughes wrote that his review of the meeting included speaking with the three complaining parties and Simi Valley City Manager Eric Levitt, who was not at the town hall meeting.

But he said Thursday he did not speak with Huber, Judge or Cavanaugh.

“The discussions I had with the city manager and the complaining parties were sufficiently consistent to describe the situation,” he said.

Huber was elected to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on June 5.