The Cypress city government wants to change the way the public is notified about government activities. The council would also like to decide who fills a vacant council seat without public input.
In other words, the people who work for the residents of Cypress don’t think what they do on their employers’ time with their employers’ money is any of their employers’ business.
If any of us took that attitude with our employers, we’d likely not be employed anymore.
Cypress is basically being very transparent about painting over the windows, with the potential of making it harder for you to get the information.
I’m having unhappy flashbacks to my youth.
When I was a journalism intern in the 1980s, part of my job was reporting on journalists getting into trouble with various government agencies in the United States and throughout the world for the quarterly “News Media & The Law Magazine.”
During this time, a Walla Walla, Washington newspaper took their city council to court for failing to comply with state meeting laws. A judge ordered the city government to post an agenda stating the date, time, and location of council meetings.
Walla Walla decreed that the council was in session 24 hours a day, seven days a week and justified this “agenda” with no information to speak of on the grounds that they considered themselves to be in session 24/7. Posted a notice on a bulletin board and all, as I recall.
If that’s what the judge intended, I’ll eat all three of my hats.
Fast forward to 2020.
Cypress officials want to change the City Charter, so they don’t have to publish notices in print newspapers. Instead, they could put up the notices in three physical locations (conveniently selected by Cypress officials) as well as online. Measure P does a few other things—such as change the way empty council seats may be filled.
I’ve seen this before. In Paramount, a City Council dominated by former Chamber of Commerce members appointed a former Chamber member to replace a retiring council member who was also a retired employee of the Chamber. No applications from residents. No public discussion. Insiders serving insiders. But it was done live on TV. It was a transparently opaque process.
The Orange County Neighborhood Newspapers have no money in this game. The city of Cypress has been using the OC Register since November 2019 to publish legal notices. The Register has approximately 3,000 subscribers within Cypress.
I’ll quote the impartial analysis of the city attorney, whose law firm gets paid by Cypress to make their legal cases: “The Charter requires publication of notices relating to ordinances, franchises, public works contracts, legal notices and other matters in the City’s official newspaper. The proposed amendment would permit the City to post notices on the City’s online presence (e.g., website) and in at least three public places designated by the City Council; except as provided otherwise by ordinance.”
That’s an awful lot of public information that Cypress wants the public to go hunting for. The information belongs to you, the public. The city of Cypress will gladly allow you to go hunting for that which belongs to you.
Some cities post information online in addition to publishing the information in print. That’s what true transparency means—releasing as much information as possible in as many ways as possible in the clearest way as possible. Meeting minimum standards and bragging about it doesn’t qualify as the real thing. Resetting the bar for the minimum so a snail can step over it doesn’t qualify either.
One candidate for Cypress City Council recently wrote: “I have found over the past few weeks that senior residents, and those that don’t use Facebook, are at an extreme disadvantage – there is no communication from the city to these residents about upcoming projects, community events, the police blotter, etc. And it’s been shocking for me to see just how many residents rely on the local newspaper to get their city information.”
Cypress recently sent out “educational” fliers promoting Measure P’s virtues. (Legally, the city can’t campaign.) According to the candidate, Cypress spent more than $7,000 on the fliers. “I find it ironic that the City of Cypress is sending a mailer out to get residents to vote yes for a measure that eliminates paper communication,” he wrote.
Charles M. Kelly is the Editor of the Paramount Journal and the Associate Editor of the Seal Beach Sun and The Catalina Islander.
