Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Appeals court to Encinitas city lawyer Glenn Sabine: You have absolutely no case!
It was bad enough when Glenn Sabine used public money to fight public access to public records. He claimed that oversight from public/media/bloggers would make it impossible for staff to conduct city business in secret (which is the entire point of public records acts -- you're not supposed to be doing secret deals and hiding financial problems from the public!!!).
But when a judge told Sabine that yes, the Public Records Act did indeed apply to Encinitas no matter how much they wanted to hide their dirty laundry from public scrutiny, Sabine persuaded the city council to appeal! In a blatant display of reckless disregard for both the spirit of public records acts and limited city financial resources, Maggie Houlihan, Jerome Stocks, Jim Bond, and Kristen Gaspar voted to waste more money filing a meritless appeal trying to keep an old road report secret from the public. What are they so desperate to hide?
Well, on the same day the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared in Cardiff with a message of hope and change for Encinitas voters, the 4th District California Court of Appeal has told Glenn Sabine to pound sand and turn over the public records!
The arrogance and paranoia of this council knows no bounds. They are already threatening to waste more money taking this completely frivolous appeal to the California Supreme Court. All so Encinitas residents can't see some public road report that might be politically embarrassing to the council majority.
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Unbelievable! The lack of accountability and arrogance of this power crazed group is beyond belief! To further this absurd legal action on a secret agenda issue is a breech of fiduciary responsibility to use taxpayer resources in a sound and prudent manner. Recalls are in order here. Sabine needs to be fired also - outsource the city attorney's function, as a full-time position is unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteSabine is a contractor, not an employee. He is the City Attorney for La Mesa as well. He works with partners to cover everything. (The city uses several other law firms with specialists in various aspects of the law.)
ReplyDeleteThe order to not release the Roads report came from one of the three guys that were on the council last year. Was it worth all this? My guess is that all three would now say no. But once they took a position to withhold, they've stuck with it. At what point should Sabine have advised that they give up the fight, knowing to do so might have cost him his job?
I can't see a scenario where there are three votes to further this debacle.
So Sabine is a contractor - no wonder he advises and promotes these engagements. There should be a disclosure on the monies paid to him or his law firm - the citizens should know how their money is being wasted.
ReplyDeleteHow does it make sense for him to be paid and rewarded to take on frivilous lawsuits--lose--and then file an appeal, which a judge then throws out because it was such a stupid case in the first place.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the wrong set of rewards for our City Attorney to be paid like this. I would like to see them hire a new attorney who is familiar with a document called the Constitution, so that we don't spend money trying to deny people 1st Amendment Rights and the ability to enjoy the Freedom of Information Act. These things are not just for the benefit for Mr. Sabine and Council to enjoy, and they should not pick and chose who they allow to have public information.
I HOPE it costs Sabine his job. It's about time.
ReplyDeleteHow many times do Encinitas taxpayers have to pay for this instrument of the Encinitas Taliban?
Unfortunately, Sabine and $tock$ are linked - can't get rid of one without the other. Dump Bond, Houlihan and Gaspar while we're at it.
ReplyDeleteI doubt Sabine could file the appeal without the council telling him to do so. The trial court said it was a close legal call, so let's not get too carried away with rhetoric. That said, to make something as dumb as a consultant's road report the object of such a fight was the dumbest of all moves. Who really cares what the road report said- when compared to other cities in the region, we're at least as good, if not better, in terms of roads. The repairs to Leucadia 101 highlight that. If anything, why repair 101 when we're going to thrash it when we implement the major improvements? That seems like a waste of money to me. Unless the improvements will be delayed for a decade . . . .
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