Napa City Council to retract letter
Katie DeBenedetti • 09.15.23
The Napa City Council plans to rescind a letter sent by three of its members to the Napa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday after Peter Nissen, the president of the Napa County Farm Bureau, accused council members of violating the state Brown Act's open-meeting protections.
Napa County rules against Le Colline vineyard
The Napa County Board of Supervisor by a 3-2 tentative vote indicated it will uphold an appeal and deny the controversial Le Colline vineyard project.
On Aug. 7, Mayor Scott Sedgley and Councilmembers Liz Alessio and Mary Luros sent a letter to supervisors ahead of their public hearing on the proposed Le Colline vineyard development. The three council members urged the county to deny the proposal, citing concerns over the development’s effect on the city’s watershed.
But the decision to send the letter was never discussed in an open meeting or reported as being discussed in a closed session by the City Council. According to David Snyder, executive director or the First Amendment Coalition, the Brown Act prohibits a majority of a legislative body, like a city council, from discussing and or taking action on an issue within their jurisdiction without placing it on a meeting agenda or discussing it in a public meeting.
Snyder said the letter sent by the Napa council members would likely violate the act, unless it was discussed in closed session and stated in an agenda.
On Aug. 28, Nissen asked the council in a letter to write a written retraction of the letter sent by Sedgley, Alessio and Luros, threatening legal action by the Farm Bureau if no such retraction was written.
At a special closed meeting held by the city council on Sept. 8 to discuss potential litigation, councilmembers discussed the Farm Bureau’s allegation, but did not take any immediate action. However, the agenda for Tuesday’s regularly scheduled council meeting includes a consent item that, if passed, will retract the members’ letter and forward a copy of the resolution to the Board of Supervisors and the Farm Bureau.
The letter states that the members’ statement “was not previously discussed or authorized during a regular meeting or special meeting.” It goes on to say that the council is retracting the statement “to cure and correct the alleged violation,” but does not admit to the members’ violating the Brown Act.
The Le Colline decision made last month by county supervisors turned down Dave and Kathleen DiSesaris’s request to build a vineyard near their property in Angwin, citing environmental concerns. The council members’ letter was referenced by those opposed to the development as part of their reasoning for rejecting the project.
As of Thursday, both Sedgley and Alessio declined the Napa Valley Register’s request for comment. Luros had yet to respond to the request as of Friday afternoon.