Angry Santa cries foul

Tim Crews, the trouble-stirring, irascible old-school editor of Glenn County’s Sacramento Valley Mirror, is at it again. Never one to sit back and let a government agency ignore freedom of information laws, Crews issued a cease-and-desist notice in October to the Orland Unified School District for violating the state’s Ralph M. Brown Act, which allows only certain matters, including potential litigation, to be discussed in closed session meetings.

Crews (pictured) said the OUSD is taking up issues in closed session that must be discussed publicly. He asked for billing records from the district’s legal council, which “were almost entirely blacked out,” Crews said. A second request resulted in clean copies that indicate the district used a series of closed sessions to discuss an audit report, a matter that is not covered by the Brown Act. The school board also spent $102 to discuss Crews’ public records request.

On Nov. 7, the district sent a written response to Crews’ cease-and-desist letter that said: “In order to avoid unnecessary litigation and without admitting any violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act, the Board of Education hereby unconditionally commits that it will cease, desist from, and not repeat the challenged past actions as described above.” The letter was signed by Connie Carter, president of the OUSD Board of Education.

In an email correspondence, Crews offered his interpretation of what the letter means: “We didn’t do it and we promise we won’t do it again, but if we do, we go to court to meet Angry Santa.” (Crews does have an uncanny resemblance to St. Nick.)