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Board must solve its decorum issue - June 15
By Times-Herald Editorial staff

Getting the public to speak up to government officials is something we would hope our elected people in Vallejo would encourage, nurture and foster.

It's part of democracy, of open government, of making sure the public is able to tell its governing bodies what it thinks and what it needs.

And, most importantly, the people we elect must be willing to listen and respond to the electorate.

But newly elected school board member Dan Glaze has gotten off on a wrong foot early in his career by taking on that speaking public.

Glaze has launched an off-target salvo toward speakers at the Vallejo school board meetings.

He is demanding that speakers stop "interrogating" staff members during board meetings.

When members of the public or people with school board business take to the podium at the Wednesday night meetings on Valle Vista Street, Glaze is annoyed that staff members have been allowed to respond to the speaker.

"It's lazy," he claims, that Vallejo Education Association president Janice Sullivan asks myriad questions before the board during the meeting, rather than phone up individual staff members ahead of time.

Further, his complaint goes, when speakers ask questions they shouldn't expect an employee to jump out of his chair, rush to the podium and respond.

But Glaze needs to turn his irritation from the speaker's podium and focus it where it belongs - at the meeting's presiding officer.

Rather than try to discourage speakers from asking questions or raising issues with the school district staff, Glaze needs to work out this issue with his presiding officer - that would be school board President Hazel Wilson, assisted by state-appointed Administrator Richard Damelio.

In any public meeting, all questions properly go through the chairman or president who is running the meeting. If that person decides to let a staff person answer, it is clearly not the speaker's fault.

It sounds as if the real problem is that the school board itself is not in agreement
on its decorum.

School board president Wilson told the Times-Herald that Glaze should not be characterizing public questions as "interrogation" - and we agree with that. The use of a negative, loaded word is designed only to provoke.

Further, Wilson said, it's appropriate for staff or board members to respond to questions if they can, and bring the issue back if more research is warranted.

We partly agree with that.

Legal experts warn elected bodies away from too much discussion between speakers and the board. It is too easy for the topic to wander from what is on the approved agenda, and getting off agenda topics is a violation of open meetings laws.

Wilson is right, though, in trying to air and resolve issues of public concern during that public meeting.

The fault may be in letting too much meeting time be spent on question-and-answer exchange with staff, when more efficient governing bodies tend to refer questions to staff to return with a report at a later meeting.

That's a time-saver, allows for a more complete response, and keeps the meeting focused on the agenda.

We suggest school board members work this decorum issue out among themselves, perhaps in a study session as board member Bill Pendergast suggests.

Glaze has vowed to continue fuming and chastising speakers for "interrogation" during the meetings until the practice stops.

That's a rather obtuse approach to settling the issue.

Surely the school board can resolve this before more speakers are publicly berated for exercising their rights and responsibilities as American citizens.