Today, in a monumental win for the citizens of the City of Ojai and beyond, the Ventura County District Attorney sent this Cease & Desist letter to Ojai City Council, demanding it stop its Brown Act Violations.

Read the entire update here on our website

In the meantime, here are the key highlights of the letter from Tony Wold, Deputy District attorney, to the City Council: 

1. They believe Leslie Rule's accusations of improprieties behind closed doors, at this council's very day on the job!
2.  Each of the three closed sessions on Dec. 13 through January 9 & 10 were violated the Brown Act.
3. These meetings exceeded the  narrow scope of the closed session statement. (Existing litigation: Simply Ojai Vs. City of Ojai, and nothing else)
4. When the council went off topic to discuss other matters--so charged in nature that they led to Andrew Whitman to hurl verbal abuse at his colleagues-- City Attorney Matt Summers failed to police the meetings and keep the council from violating the Brown Act. 
5. The Deputy DA, Paul Wold, also said that Leslie Rule should have gone with her grievance to the DA first and not the public.  
   However, we are reminded that Ms. Rule went FIRST to Mr. Summers, the City Attorney and City Manager about her concerns but was told there was nothing she could do, which she rightfully didn't believe. 
6. Consequently, Mr. Summer failed us (the City of Ojai) again in his duty to properly represent his client, a new city council member, then doubled down on taking sides against her--and certain members of the public--by shouting them all down. 
   
   The next planned "closed session" Ojai City Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday May 16th has subsequently been canceled and we will wait to see when and if the City agrees to the DA's request to record all such meetings. 

Thank you all for your winning participation in Democracy, the rule of law and transparency in government!  

We will continue to keep you posted!
#WeAreTransparentOjai #OjaiWatchdog