Palomar Airport: Why Won’t the County Tell You the PAAC Rules? Blog #22

You are at bat.  Pitch one brushes your shoulder.  Umpire: “Strike 1.”   Pitch two tickles your ankles.  “Strike 2.”  You arch your Jack Nicholson eyebrows and ask: “Where’s the strike zone?”  Answer:  “It’s on a need to know basis and you don’t need to know.”

Welcome to County baseball at the Palomar Airport Advisory Committee [PAAC].

What is the PAAC

According to the County Board of Supervisors ordinance creating the PAAC, the PAAC is an “open forum” for citizens and the PAAC to exchange information related to Palomar Airport.   

The PAAC has 9 members meeting most third Thursdays of the month in the Carlsbad City Council chambers.   It is an advisory very part time body.  It makes Palomar-related recommendations to the Board of Supervisors.  Some believe the PAAC rubber stamps airport requests.

Strike 1: The PAAC August 2012 Meeting: What Rules?

At its August 2012 meeting, the PAAC listened to a 10-minute talk related to California Pacific Airlines [CPA] starting new service at Palomar.  Then a PAAC member asked for a vote to support the FAA CPA environmental report prepared in July 2012 and to support the CPA new service.

Just one problem.  Usually governmental bodies can’t act on a matter until the environmental report is final.  The report is final when the citizen comment period ends and the agency writing the report replies.    The comment period ended one week after the PAAC meeting. As of March 2013, the FAA has not yet replied to comments.

I informed the PAAC of this rule.  The PAAC decided to nonetheless support the project but not act on the FAA environmental report.

Strike 2: What Rules?

In November 2012 I wrote the Board of Supervisors [BOS] and the County Counsel (legal advisor).   I noted that the rules the PAAC must apply when it acts on projects with environmental impacts were, as Mr. Nicholson might say, “not crystal clear.”  I suggested the County clarify the rules for the PAAC, other County advisory committees, and the public.

I expected one of two replies.  Either the PAAC need not comply with BOS rules because the PAAC advises on but does not decide issues.  Or, the PAAC must comply with BOS rules because PAAC Palomar recommendations to the BOS on which the BOS relies have no value if they rest on flawed facts.   

To decide the PAAC rules, the BOS must consider the law, politics, and its representations to the FAA that the County engages in fair outreach to the public.

In January 2013, I asked the County to explain the rules to be applied at PAAC meetings.  I made it clear I wanted the rules, not the County Counsel’s analysis.   In February, the County Counsel responded: We can’t give you that information.  It ‘s attorney-client protected.

In February, I wrote the County Counsel explaining in detail why the attorney-client privilege did not apply.  To date, the county counsel has not responded.  In fact, I hear the County has cancelled a training session that it set up to train advisory committee members.

Isn’t it curious that a county body that was set up to inform the public about Palomar projects in an “open forum” wants to apply secret rules at a public Brown Act meeting?  

Why won’t the County tell us the rules?  Even if there were an attorney-client privilege, which seems doubtful, the BOS can waive the privilege.  More importantly, the PAAC rules determine how, when, and what information the public must present the County when Palomar projects come before the PAAC and BOS.

I didn’t know a PAAC meeting was an Alex Trebek Jeopardy episode.  “I’ll take County Rules for $1,000.”