COUNTY SEEKS EXPERT ON OPEN MEETINGS OUTSIDE COUNSEL WEIGHED.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Los Angeles County supervisors will vote today whether to hire an attorney to review various proposals to make government meetings more open, even as scores of activists and employees plan to protest the board's closed-door meeting policies.

In calling for an outside attorney to review open-meeting proposals, Supervisors Gloria Molina and Don Knabe acknowledged that County Counsel Lloyd Pellman is responsible for the task, but said the board needed expert advice in providing objective recommendations on complying with open-meeting laws.

Their motion sets no dollar figure for hiring an attorney, but said the outside counsel could advise the board on ongoing basis, for an initial period of at least six months.

The attorney is expected to advise the board on such issues as taping closed-session meetings, adopting a local ``sunshine act'' governing public meetings, and hearing reports in open meetings on foster child deaths.

``Because such proposals involve complex legal issues, it is imperative that an attorney with appropriate expertise analyze them and provide recommendations to the board,'' Molina and Knabe wrote in the motion.

``It is also imperative that the board be provided with ongoing advice to ensure that the board complies with open government laws consistently, in an informed manner, and long after the current issues fades from the press headlines.''

Meanwhile, hundreds of seniors, long-term care workers, people with disabilities, clergy, prominent community leaders and representatives of the California First Amendment Coalition are expected to protest the supervisors' recent attempt in closed session to kill a ballot initiative intended to raise the wages of the county's 82,149 home-care workers.

And Los Angeles County deputy probation officers plan to protest the ``back-room approval'' of a plan to replace a highly effective gang supervision program with one they claim puts public safety at risk.

``Probation officers attempted to offer expert input at a justice deputies' meeting, but the board staffers kicked us out in blatant violation of the intent of the Brown Act,'' said Ralph Miller, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 685. ``At the Board of Supervisors' meeting the following Tuesday, the complex item was rubber-stamped without discussion.''

County children's social workers are also expected to stage a rally and testify during the meeting that the board's closed-door meetings are putting thousands of abused and neglected children in danger.

``Their repeated policy of discussing Department of Children and Family Services policies, that lead to children's deaths, behind closed doors is counterproductive to child safety,'' said Paula Gamboa, president of Service Employees International Union Local 535. ``For the sake of L.A.'s children, these issues must be discussed by the board in public.''

On Monday, the County Counsel's Office released a 98-page package of reports, saying the supervisors must hear foster child death reports in closed session to maintain the confidentiality of children served by the county.

But Pellman wrote that administrative or policy matters the board considers as a result of the foster child death reports should be considered and acted on in open session.

Pellman wrote that enacting a ``sunshine act'' could create complications in interpretation and understanding of open meeting and public records laws and that any expansion of the state Brown Act should be made by policy enactments rather than county ordinance.

Open-meeting advocates also have criticized the supervisors for conducting much of their business through their deputies in closed-door meetings and in weekly meetings with Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen.

Pellman wrote that as long as deputies are not used by a majority of board members as personal intermediaries to develop a collective concurrence as to actions to be taken it's not a violation of the Brown Act. Pellman recommended that the supervisors adopt a policy that meetings among board deputies not be used to develop concurrences on actions to take on board items.

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The Board of Supervisors will meet at 11 a.m. today in Room 381B at the Hall of Administration, 500 W. Temple St., Los Angeles.

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