Sunset Cultural Center, Inc. (SCC) and the Monterey Foundation of Pacific Grove, Inc. (MFPG) can best fulfill their obligations to the public trust and be accountable to the communities they each serve by having their monthly board meetings open to the public. Opening all board meetings to the public, not merely one annual meeting in the case of SCC or semi-annual Community Days in the case of MFPG, would communicate to the public that Board Members understand their obligation to conduct activities with transparency, integrity and accountability. Moreover, in the context of both nonprofit public benefit corporations under agreement to receive approximately $6.5 million of taxpayer monies during the Term of the Agreement between the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea and SCC (2004 – 2012) and approximately $2.25 million of taxpayer monies during the initial Term of the Agreement between the City of Pacific Grove and MFPG (2009 – 2024), members of the public should have the opportunity to observe decision-making processes in order to gain an understanding of the rationale for plans and decisions.
Importantly, SCC and the MFPG should honor the spirit of California’s sunshine law, the Ralph M. Brown Act, by taking the advice of David Hosley, Ph.D., an advocate of open board meetings for nonprofit organizations. Writing in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, Stanford University, Hosley advocates placing the commitment to have open meetings in the organization’s by-laws, developing policies about public comment, communicating meeting dates and times on a regular basis through a newsletter, e-letter, website and posting a summary of action items and significant reports on the organization’s website.
In sum, Sunset Cultural Center, Inc. (SCC) and the Museum Foundation of Pacific Grove, Inc. (MFPG) opening their board meetings to the public for the purpose of giving interested members of the public the opportunity to observe decision-making processes and gain an understanding of the rationale for decisions would encourage public participation and support and ultimately go a long way towards ensuring the long-term success of SCC’s management of Sunset Center and the MFPG’s management of the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History.
Related Link: Pacific Grove museum board member resigns
Frustrated over procedures
By KEVIN HOWE Herald Staff Writer, 03/15/2011
4 comments:
Wow, things are not going too well for Jason Burnett based on the end of that Herald article.
So, Pacific Grove Councilman Dan Miller is disappointed in foundation board president Jason Burnett for not adhering to the same standards of openness and transparency in PG. Well, Jason Burnett is pure politician. He wants to please everybody. He wants to please his town hall constituents, his colleagues on the Carmel council, etc. Of course, most people understand trying to please everyone is a fool’s errand and in trying to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. If Jason Burnett’s campaign slogan of open and transparent government was more than a nice sounding, PR mantra, then he would have resubmitted his two agenda item requests on CalPERS and Flanders Mansion every month since he first submitted them in August 2010 until the items were put on a council agenda for public input and orally informed the public of his lack of progress along the way.
There are some eerie parallels between the museum foundation and SCC too. Carmel mayor Sue McCloud also tried to sell the public on SCC by claiming desperation. Of course, this was orchestrated by her with the city’s defunding of the community and cultural department. SCC also did not have experience running a theater or community center and the council did not authorize RFPs to encourage other more qualified groups to submit proposals. Instead there was blatant favoritism in favor of SCC. And it is well known Chair Jim Price is so much the mayor’s man that he has to stay on even when he has violated SCC’s by-laws by staying on the board past the two terms limit.
Thank you Dan Miller and Esther Trosow for going public. People of principle like you are so rare in politics and government. We need more people like you and less of the go along to get along "I'll tell you what you want to hear" empty rhetoric people.
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