'CONFIDENTIAL' THE NEW BYWORD? CRITICS CONCERNED ABOUT FUTURE COUNTY POLICIES.

Byline: TROY ANDERSON 

Staff Writer

Amid concerns that a plan to expand the authority of Los Angeles County's chief executive would revive the days of "back-room deals," the County Counsel's Office issued a report Tuesday detailing how the plan would comply with the state's open-meeting laws.

But even as officials sought to reassure the public that new authority for the office would be open and transparent, the counsel's office stamped its report "confidential."

County Counsel Ray Fortner said virtually all memos to the Board of Supervisors are considered confidential communications between the board and its attorney.

"This was just following our standard practice," Fortner said.

The move still drew concern from some open-government advocates.

"I'm not surprised," said open-government advocate Karen Ocamb. "The County Counsel's Office seems to consider everything to be confidential and secret."

The report was given to the Board of Supervisors, which was set to vote on a motion that would require "cluster meetings" to be open to supervisors' deputies, as well as the public.

Supervisors decided to delay a vote for two weeks to review the report and hear from Chief Executive Officer David Janssen, who was unable to attend Tuesday's meeting.

"My concern is that the proposal adopted by the majority of this board leaves wide open the door for secret manipulations and hiding of issues from the public," said Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

The controversy follows a 4-1 vote by the board last month to grant vast new authority to the county CEO under a $1.7 million reorganization of the office. Under the plan, the county CEO will have five deputy CEOs who will oversee clusters of departments.

During the discussion Tuesday, officials said some "cluster meetings" that deal with policy issues will be open to the public and board deputies, but others can be held in private because they don't fall under open-meeting laws.

"Not every conversation, deliberation and not every e-mail is shared publicly, although it would sure be interesting if they were," Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.

Antonovich said he is especially interested in opening up meetings involving the CEO, deputy CEOs, department heads and the County Counsel's Office.

Open-government advocates have raised concerns that the new structure would encourage decisions to be made behind closed doors by the CEO and deputy CEOs, who can call meetings without notifying the public or board members' deputies.

"Additionally, since the unelected CEO doesn't consider his office to be subject to the Brown Act (the state law that spells out which meetings must be public), we are concerned that even if your board deputies do attend these meetings, they may not be able to share information learned at them," Ocamb said.

After two candidates to replace Janssen backed out, the supervisors voted in March to explore giving the county's top officer greater powers, including the ability to hire and fire department heads.

Advocates say the change will allow the supervisors to hold one person accountable to fix the county's problems and help the county to recruit someone to replace Janssen.

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

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