The San Diego City Council will hold a special meeting Tuesday to re-vote on which of its members should serve as president due to a possible violation of state law.
The announcement Monday by new Council President Sherri Lightner comes after NBC 7 San Diego reported Thursday that some council members met one-on-one before the first vote last week. The conversations among council members could be a violation of the Brown Act, the state's open meeting law.
Terry Francke, general counsel for the open government advocacy group Californians Aware, explained how that violation could occur.
"If for example a majority of the council got involved in a daisy chain series of calls where A calls B, B calls C and C calls D and so forth, with each of those participants not only urging a particular vote but informing the new person of how the votes are going so far," Francke said.
These kinds of allegations are often difficult to prove, he said.
"Either someone would have to sue the city and use discovery to find that out or perhaps the district attorney could use investigative interviews to determine who talked to whom and when and what about and so forth," Francke said.
Lightner, a Democrat, was selected Wednesday to succeed fellow Democrat Todd Gloria. Rumors predicted Lightner and the council’s four Republican members would vote to oust Gloria, who was seeking a third term.
After Gloria lost his re-election bid, Lightner was elected to the seat by a 7-2 vote.
Ligthner said Monday her nominations for president pro tem and a slate of appointments to council committees and outside agencies will also be heard at the special meeting.
